Kompany is the happiest guy in town after return

Les Chapman.

SOME teams don't appear to be quite honouring the tradition of the FA Cup this season by playing weakened teams, but it was nice to see Manchester City playing so well and winning so comfortably at Crystal Palace in the fourth round.

The same would appear to apply for United, who eased past Wigan, but as far as City as concerned, it looks like Mr Guardiola is determined to go all the way in this season's competition.

I would have thought every team would want to win a trophy like the FA Cup.

There were some major positives in the Palace win.

Gabriel Jesus started and looked a real prospect again, while I was particularly delighted to see Vinny Kompany return from his latest injury and play the full 90 minutes with no after-effects.

He had an outstanding game for City, and I didn't notice some comments from Vinny where he'd said after the game that he was the happiest footballer of all time. That was great to hear.

TRAVELLED

I actually travelled down to Palace with the City fans, and I had a great day out. Well, that was until I lost my wallet on the way back.

I only remember travelling with fans twice before.

Once was when I went to Wembley with Latics to watch the Littlewoods Cup final against Nottingham Forest in 1990, while before that it was again with Latics supporters, when we went to watch a game at Wolves way back in 1966. Latics got beat 4-1 that day.

Going with the fans is great. There's always great banter and camararderie, and certainly there's plenty of god-humoured chat when you're on a train with a load of City fans.

The journey to Palace is dead easy too. A two hour train ride is followed by a a tube and an overland train, and then you're just 10 minutes walk from Selhurst Park.

A great result too, so it was an enjoyable day.

City now switch the focus back to the Premier League though, with tomorrow night's game at West Ham and Swansea arriving at he Etihad at the weekend.

Six points from those two games and the team will be right back in the mix for that crucial top four finishing spot.