Anelka averts disaster after Seaman error

Manchester City 3 Lokeren

Belgium has provided some the highest and lowest points of Kevin Keegan's career: a Uefa Cup final victory in Bruges, a 5-0 win in Antwerp to mark his managerial debut in European football and the ghastly humiliation of Euro 2000.

A thrilling, wholly unconvincing victory against a team bottom of the Belgian First Division would not count as triumph, but two late goals ensured it was not the embarrassment it might have been.

However, Sporting Lokeren would assuredly have settled for this result before kick-off, and when Keegan returns to Flanders his team will have to perform with far more assurance if Manchester City's comeback to European football after nearly a quarter of a century is not to be a fleeting affair.

Criticising your own supporters is a hugely dangerous tactic, but the Manchester City manager felt secure enough to announce: "The way they booed off their own team [at half-time] was terribly disappointing. They were getting at one or two players. If they want this club to go forward, they have to get behind them. I've never had a team booed off before, not even when we were 4-0 down at half-time against Arsenal at Maine Road last season."

It was ironic indeed that this first-round Uefa Cup tie should have been salvaged by Robbie Fowler, one of the targets for the criticism, whose 77th-minute equaliser gave City something to show for their laboured dominance. Keegan has revealed signs of losing patience with a striker whose natural gifts have been submerged beneath too many injuries and insufficient match fitness. "The time has come for Robbie to prove his worth," he had said pointedly before kick-off.

Fowler did at least prove he could be in the right place at the right time as Antoine Sibierski's nod-down was toe-poked over the line. A couple of minutes later, Sun Jihai was brought down and Nicolas Anelka's emphatically taken penalty gave Manchester City a desperately narrow victory.

However, when this match is analysed, it will be for what has now become almost a ritual feature of Manchester City's matches this season; the David Seaman error.

It was the sixth in as many weeks and came from nowhere, or rather from a long, hopeful punt upfield at a time when Lokeren were a goal down and looking as if they might be swamped. Seaman was done few favours by his right-back, Sun Jihai, who sent a ballooning header towards his own keeper, allowing Patrick Zoundi to reach the ball before City's ageing keeper. He came off his line, hesitated and paid the price with further damage to a waning reputation.

Seaman could not be held responsible for Lokeren's second, which again came on the counter-attack after a bout of sustained home pressure. Either Sun Jihai or David Sommeil might have cut out the low cross from the right, but none did and Runar Kristinsson's finish was merciless.

Yet just before Zoundi's goal, when Sylvain Distin had seen his header cleared off the line, it appeared Ladbrokes' "special bet" of a 7-1 Manchester City victory might not be that arrogant. Without a win in six league matches, fresh from the heaviest home defeat of their history, Lokeren began with seemingly no appetite for the fixture and fell behind in the eighth minute.

Sibierski, who looks a taller, more elegant version of Gary McAllister, shares the Coventry manager's way with a free-kick. Awarded for a foul on Anelka on the right-hand edge of the area, it was curled beautifully around the wall and seemed to build the platform for a rout, although what followed was something else entirely.

Manchester City (4-4-2): Seaman; Sun Jihai, Sommeil, Distin, Tiatto (Dunne, 69); Sibierski, Bosvelt (Wright-Phillips, 65), Reyna, McManaman; Fowler, Anelka. Substitutes not used: Weaver (gk), Sinclair, Barton, Berkovic, Jordan.

Sporting Lokeren (5-4-1): Dabanovic; Sory Conte, Doba, Muzinga, Zanzan, Van Hoey; Zoundi, Vidarsson, Gretarsson, De Beule; Kristinsson. Substitutes not used: Van der Jeugt (gk), Ekounga, Baldvinsson, Overmeire, Van Hoeylandt, Coulibaly, Elbodmossi.

Referee: G Gilewski (Poland).