It could be exciting for the club, it depends what comes with it." A few new defenders would not go amiss.Manchester City (4-4-2): James; Mills, Sommeil (Jihai, h-t), Distin, Jordan; Croft (Sibierski, 69), Ireland, Barton, Musampa; Vassell, Cole (Wright-Phillips, 85). We are not good enough to give teams such a big advantage," he said, before going on to use the possible £64m takeover by the Comer Homes Group as a reason for his current problems."It has been a very unsettling period," he added. "Rumours and rumours, talk and talk, but we are not getting any information. "We gifted Manchester City their goals and that has been the problem since day one this season. Pearce described Vassell's blossoming partnership with Andrew Cole, who added a third in the 82nd minute to quash any prospect of a belated Villa recovery, as the Laurel and Hardy of the top flight, "they complement each other perfectly only without the humour".

Yet City have plenty of reason to laugh these days, and not only at the malaise of their bitter rivals, with astute management, a potent attack and a productive youth system that honed three-quarters of their industrious midfield last night offering grounds for genuine optimism. "I still think we can get much better," said Pearce. Nature's perversity is rarely more evident than when you are being besieged by a monologue from Jose Mourinho. Why, when all that charm and intelligence and those brooding good looks were being doled out so generously, didn't someone take the trouble to throw in a drivel detector? This has to be a sad reflection because there was a little spell last season when it was reasonable to think that if anyone could take the poison out of the idea of an unknown oligarch annexing English football for a little corner of his empire, it was the "Special One".. The end of the empire at Old Trafford would once have provided Manchester City with all the cause for celebration they required, but that was before Stuart Pearce brought his relentless ambition to the club and presented them with a new set of objectives to savour. But it was Prior who took his opportunity best, with a 61-ball 50 which contained eight fours as he kept pace with his senior partner without taking undue risks.England scoreboardPatron's XI v England (Rawalpindi) England won toss (day one of three)ENGLAND - First InningsM E Trescothick not out 124A J Strauss b Najaf Shah 5M P Vaughan lbw b Najaf Shah 9K P Pietersen c Asim Kamal b Yasir Ali 2P D Collingwood b Yasir Arafat 0I R Bell b Yasir Arafat 2G O Jones b Yasir Arafat 4A F Giles lbw b Imran Tahir 30S D Udal c Ashar Zaidi b Najaf Shah 14M J Prior b Yasir Arafat 50A G R Loudon not out 3Extras (lb4 w3 nb6) 13Total (for 9, 74 overs) 256Fall: 1-10 (Strauss) 2-41 (Vaughan) 3-53 (Pietersen) 4-54 (Collingwood) 5-56 (Bell) 6-60 (Jones) 7-98 (Giles) 8-130 (Udal) 9-248 (Prior).To Bat: L E Plunkett, M J Hoggard, J M Anderson.Bowling: Najaf Shah 18-6-58-3, Irshad 17-0-64-0, Yasir Arafat 17-6-45-4, Yasir Ali 4-2-2-1, Imran Tahir 12-2-44-1, Bazid Khan 6-0-39-0.. Pietersen reacted to the arrival of Yasir Ali at the pavilion end by spearing a drive on the up to be caught at gully off the new bowler's third delivery - and Collingwood went for a duck when he under-edged a pull at Arafat on to his middle-stump, off a ball that might have been better met by a backward-defensive bat.Ian Bell did not last long before Arafat snaked a full-length ball between bat and pad to beat the defence, and Geraint Jones was soon also bowled by a similar delivery, leaving Trescothick with the tail after barely 25 overs at the crease.The belated support acts began with Ashley Giles, who dominated a seventh-wicket stand of 38; then Shaun Udal stayed long enough to accompany Trescothick as he passed his half-century.

Here, they don't even make the outfield."Trescothick was disappointed to see the rest of the top order miss out, although reserve wicketkeeper-batsman Matt Prior (50) helped post a five-an-over ninth-wicket stand of 117."It would have been nice if the top order had got a few more runs. But you can't always come out and blaze it - and it's not going to be like that over here, because the wickets are generally slow," he said."That is what we are going to have to adapt to. In England it flies across the square and the outfields are so quick that dead-bat shots go for four sometimes. There was no doubt, though, that he could be happy with his contribution."At one stage I had faced well over 100 balls for 40 - so it was like pulling teeth for a while," he said.Trescothick is well aware there will have to be more of the same over the next seven weeks if England are to have a successful tour."I got a bit lucky and had a few close lbws early on. Without Trescothick's defiant century, the Ashes heroes - who lurched to 60 for 6 at one stage against the Patron's XI - would have been shot out for an embarrassingly low total.In their first innings since the 2-1 series victory over Australia - and exactly seven weeks after their Oval lap of honour - Michael Vaughan's team were indebted to the Somerset left-hander's 186-ball hundred as they mustered an unconvincing 256 for 9, having chosen to bat first. Trescothick's unbeaten 124 was the only score above 9 from any of the top seven as the Patron's team used the new ball well and then began to find movement off the pitch in the middle overs, former Scottish Saltires seamer Yasir Arafat finishing with 4 for 45.Trescothick was in modest mood with a few observations at his own expense as he reflected on his innings. Marcus Trescothick likened his batting to "pulling teeth" at the Pindi Stadium yesterday - but England were happy to grin and bear it as he ground out the runs which saved their blushes on the first day of their tour opener in Pakistan. The fan, later arrested, took the ball from Favre's right hand and sprinted towards the end zone before being tackled by security personnel "I wasn't scared of him," Favre said "Believe me." On the next play, Favre was sacked..