Man City fans at Wembley dished out another lesson - it should be obvious by now

If you'll forgive a personal tale, my parents were on holiday in Nice with friends some time ago when they found out that the Tour de France would be passing through the city.

They weren't keen cyclists but they liked the idea of the spectacle so took their positions early, bemused as to why so many locals were more concerned with a beach they see all the time rather than an historic event.

That remained the case until seconds before the cyclists whizzed by, at which point all the locals stepped to the front of the sidewalk and saw the athletes in all of their glory before returning to the beach. My mum and dad got some terrific pictures of some French backs and heads, but less evidence of the famous race that had flown by.

That story came to mind at Wembley on Sunday at the FA Cup semi-final. There was so much chat before the game of how Forest shirts were everywhere around Wembley and almost their entire end was practically full - in contrast to the City end.

Plenty of commentary had been had in the build-up about why 'only' 30,000 Blues had bought tickets for their 30th trip to Wembley in the last 15 years, falling comfortably short of their allocation. The City end was sparse right up to kick-off, with hundreds magically appearing once a banner on the lower tier was removed as the teams came out.

Suddenly, Pep Guardiola and his players were 1-0 up. For all the noise about Forest's fans before the match, it was City who had jumped to the front at the last minute and taken control of the situation with the end that had been half-empty suddenly full and the loudest part of the ground.

That should be a second lesson for many over the last week. The Nottingham Post described City not selling their full allocation as