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Day: 28 April 2017

Manchester City 0-0 Manchester United

Written by Harry Newton on . Posted in Sport.

The Future is Manc

Expectations were high when Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho took over the Manchester teams this season, and both have fallen a little short from what was expected of them, but something big is obviously shaping-up at both Clubs.

Manchester City have instilled a certain possession-based style of play – which saw them have 69 per cent possession against Manchester United in this match – but have struggled at stages to balance this with a strong defence.

Meanwhile United have become the team in the League that are the most difficult to beat, but have struggled to get the goals to turn draws into wins. With Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Juan Mata out for this game, United fans were not expecting a goal fest which probably explains why Mourinho went with a defensive style of play.

Obviously, this game was much more entertaining for Blues’ fans as they watched their team try to break down United, who did not see much of the ball, but the Reds will be happier with the result.

Things are beginning to click with both these clubs and I’ll eat my hat if they aren’t shooting it out for the top prize next season. And I bloody love that hat.

If this Game was a Film…

Return of the Jedi

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

As a guardian of peace and justice, Vincent Kompany is basically a Jedi. Well, I think so – I’ve never seen Star Wars, I hope my Googling has gone well. I’m that guy that turns up to parties and tells everyone “I’ve never seen Star Wars”.

Kompany’s return to the back four in the past few weeks has installed a sense of security at City, and everyone has picked up their game. Both Kompany and Nicolás Otamendi had a fantastic game, breaking any opportunity that United sought, handling the pace of United’s attacking players, and starting City’s attacks well.

Kompany was in fine form, stepping forward from the back and pulling out the bag some beautiful old-school slide tackles. I’m also pretty sure that Otamendi will be necking MigreLief as we speak now, because he won almost every aerial dual thrown to man.

19 seconds in paradise

Ahh I remember playing ‘19 seconds in paradise’ when I was a kid! They used to chuck me in a store cupboard with a girl at school for ‘5 minutes in paradise’ and for some reason it only lasted… I think it’s best we get back to the football.

Of course, 19 seconds in Paradise refers to the amount of time that it took Marouane Fellaini to commit a foul, get booked, do another foul, head-butt a player, and get sent off.

Fellaini was having a pretty good game to this point. With Ander Herrera struggling against the Yaya Toure and Fernandinho, Fellaini had to pick up some of the slack and was good at holding up the play and knocking on to the pacey Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford.

That was until he fouled Sergio Aguero twice in 19 seconds and then head-butted him before being shown red.

Possession with intent

With 69 per cent possession, you would expect City to have broken down United in the end, but the Reds held on for a 0-0 draw, with Eric Bailly displaying an impressive performance at the back. On the ninth minute Aguero set the tone for the night, as a great de Bruyne cross met Aguero a couple yards out from the goal, but he hit the post.

With all this being said, Gabriel Jesus made his return and was substituted on the 85th minute when Guardiola saw Fellaini’s sending-off as an opportunity to go for goal.

Eight minutes later Jesus had the ball in the back as he headed in from close-range after an Aguero cross. The linesman ruled for offside in a hideously close decision. That will haunt the City team until their last days.

United’s only real chance came on the 25th minute. Bravo palmed away a cross that honestly didn’t really need palming away, and it fell straight to Henrikh Mkhitaryan. His shot was saved well by Bravo though despite how the goal was at his mercy. Bravo was his match. Unfortunately, though Bravo picked up an injury on the 76th minute and was substituted for Willy Caballero. He could miss the rest of the season.

Finalists announced for Venture Further’s business catergory

Written by Jennifer Sterne on . Posted in News.

The finalists for the four prize categories in this year’s Venture Further competition have been announced.

This article looks into the people and ideas behind the four finalists in the business category. The other shortlists for the research, digital and social categories have also been announced.

This year’s finals take place on Wednesday the 3rd of May, at Whitworth Hall, University of Manchester.

Venture Further invites students and recent alumni to submit a business proposal to an expert judging panel of enterprise and business professionals.

There are four prize categories to choose from – business, social, digital and research – with the winners receiving a £10,000 cash injection to get their businesses off the ground.

The business category recognises companies that have real commercial potential, through new products or services. This year’s ideas range from data analysis to phone cases, and affordable food to clothing rental.

The entries that made it through to this year’s final four in the business category are below:

Neurolytics 
Eleanor Trimble, Siddharth Kohli, Mohammed Abdulaal, Meera Dulabh, and Dr Alex Casson

Using biometric data analysis, Neurolytics’ vision is to enhance marketing solutions through insights into consumers’ subconscious behaviours. The team’s goal is to bridge the gap that currently exists between academic research and commercial industry.

UWispa 
Bilal El Sayed and Benedict Vardey

UWispa is an innovative mobile phone case that allows for clear communication when whispering or when speaking even in the noisiest environment. The mission of UWispa is to extend the privacy and communication clarity of your home phone to your mobile phone when out in public.

Wardrobe in the City 
Crystal Bromwell

Wardrobe in the City is the first UK-based company to revolutionise clothing ownership, providing women with unlimited access to new outfits through a clothing-rental subscription service. This offers a commitment-free alternative to buying and storing clothes that quickly become outdated and/or unwanted. Furthermore, it discourages women from fraudulently returning worn goods.

Russell Food Group 
Drs. Amir Khorasani and Mohammad Hajhashem

Russell Food Group’s aim is to bring healthy and locally sourced food at affordable prices to all consumers. To do this, the team plans to harness the power of technology in order to democratise the rural economy, empowering farmers and disrupting existing supply chains, for the benefit of both consumers and stakeholders.

Finalists announced for Venture Further’s research catergory

Written by Jennifer Sterne on . Posted in News.

The finalists for the four prize categories in this year’s Venture Further competition have been announced.

This article looks into the people and ideas behind the four finalists in the research category. The other shortlists, for the business, digital and social categories, have also been announced.

This year’s finals take place on Wednesday the 3rd of May, at Whitworth Hall, University of Manchester.

Venture Further invites students and recent alumni to submit a business proposal to an expert judging panel of enterprise and business professionals.

There are four prize categories to choose from – business, social, digital and research – with the winners receiving a £10,000 cash injection to get their businesses off the ground.

The research category recognises businesses that focus on the application of university-based research to real-world problems and needs. This year’s ideas span everything from particle manufacture to graphene, and boosting grid capacity to wearable e-textiles.

The entries that made it through to this year’s final four in the research category are below:

MicroSpray Technologies Ltd 
Drs. Salman Malik and Muftau Akanbi

MicroSpray Technologies’ mission is to revolutionise particle manufacturing using an innovative, simple and cost-effective spray technology. This platform technology is considered the ‘holy grail’ of particle manufacture in aerosol generation methods and the team can now provide the sufficient production of particles for high-value added applications, such as pharmaceutical drug delivery.

GrapheX 
Denis Bandurin and Alexander Obraztsov

GrapheX develops x-ray sources with graphene-based cold cathodes. Due to their low power consumption, the team’s x-ray sources find their application where portable technology is required, e.g. in urgent medical imaging, oil and gas pipe testing, food inspection and so on.

Cable Coatings 
Niall Coogan and Barry Johnston

Cable Coatings is a novel, low-cost solution to the increasingly prevalent issue of how to boost electricity grid capacity.

2Dtronics 
Mohammad Nazmul Karim and Shaila Afroj

2Dtronics is a R&D company offering simple, scalable, cost-effective and environmental friendly 2D materials–based technology for wearable e- textiles applications. This patent pending technology would be used in developing 2D material-based e-textiles that would monitor body temperature, heart rate and muscle activity, all in real time.

Live: The Orielles

Written by Hannah Brierley on . Posted in Music.

14th April at The Hope & Ruin, Brighton

8/10

The Orielles are shaking things up within their music; the fresh-faced trio bring a strange new and modern twist on the 90’s grunge feel. The female-led group, with Esme on bass and vocals and Sidonie on drums, was refreshing to watch in a time where music is male dominated – however, this isn’t to say that guitarist and vocalist Henry Carlyle Wade was short of the spotlight; he was full of energy and impressive moves which really pulled in the crowd.

Set in The Hope & Ruin in Brighton, the grungy but cool venue emphasised the mood and reflected the vibe that the band were trying to relay, the whole room was brimming with excitement and intent to experience the group. Whilst there were no magic light shows or extra visuals, it was not necessary nor would have added anything extra to the performance.

The 30-minute set was filled with swirling and sultry melodies transporting you to a world full of surf pop, magnetic vocals and sea green. Despite their young age they are all really making ripples in the music world.

Sometimes old-school sounding music has a tendency to have most songs sound very similar and merge into one other; this was not the case for the Halifax-based band. Each song had its own unique sound, each song cleverly thought out and causing a dreamlike trance with its ooh’s and ahh’s or inducing a intense urge to dance around by its incredible riffs and solos.

For a band, who are relatively new to the game and such a long way from their home town up in Yorkshire the trio did surprisingly well to pull together a relatively large audience; and still only partly way through their tour, one can only imagine that this will be same the case up and down the country.

The Orielles performed tracks from their last EP ‘Jobin’ which is Abe to transport you to the middle of a feel good rom-com from the 90s. Light jingly melodies and airy vocals make you want to blast it from a car with the roof down a perfect summer soundtrack.

The standout song for me was ‘Sugar Tastes Like Salt’. Normally the idea of an eight-minute song would quickly get boring, yet the ever-changing tempo, which took us from a slow and lulling mood to rapid beats, synths and distortion, kept everyone moving and engaged. It really was spectacular.

The Orielles are something not to be missed or underestimated; they are making ripples in music, and have a large eventful career ahead of themselves. I highly recommend and look forward to hearing what they make next.