Manchester City Football Club had gone too many years without any silverware in their trophy cabinet… or should that be broom cupboard?

That is, until this happened:

On April 16th 2011, something strange took place. Something that Manchester hadn’t seen in 35 years. The power shift.

City beat Manchester United 1-0 that day in the FA Cup semi final that day. Meaning that they were through to the finals on May 14th, against Stoke – admittedly quite the anticlimax after such a triumphant victory against our derby day rivals. They couldn’t loose, could they? Of course they could, this is City we are talking about!

A mixture of nerves and excitement filled that day as, once again, the Blue Army travelled down South to Wembley. Yaya Toure proved the pessimists wrong with his thunderous goal at 74 minutes. Game Over.

Surely, we’ll wake up from this dream soon in a cold blue sweat? Luck like this just doesn’t happen City, fans have programmed themselves to accept that with a smile and inflatable banana over the years. This wasn’t luck though. This was talent.

With, arguably, one of the best line ups to ever grace the Blue three-quarters of Manchester since that of Bell, Lee, Summerbee and Young et al in 1969. This year’s campaign was a display of pure skill from Roberto Manchini’s squad and Sheikh Mansour’s wealth.

Yesterday, the club held its FA Cup celebrations in a parade through (a very windy!), Manchester in an open top bus, on its way to Eastlands.

I was one of the lucky few who had tickets to celebrate with the team inside the stadium. The night featured performances from Kid British (who neglected to say that all but one of their band members are United supporters…) True Blue Damon Gough aka Badly Drawn Boy and Supra, who covered the Blue Moon anthem.

Moving tributes way dearly paid to Malcolm Allison and Neil Young, who both died before they could see City victorious again. The team was led out and revealed next season’s red and black away kit, in honour of 1969 nostalgia.

Oh, and did I mention that we have a guaranteed Champions League place by finished third in the premier league this season?

… The club better start looking for a bigger trophy room; the Blue Army do not intend on waiting another 35 years for moments like this. There’s a Blue Moon over Manchester from now on!