I must now possess one of the best percentage-win records I've ever had for a season supporting Manchester City.

Up til this season I've usually managed at least 20 matches in each league campaign, reaching a monotonous nadir in 2005/06, when I managed to attend 14 matches without a single victory.

This season work commitments have vastly curtailed my ability to follow City, to the point where this is only the second match I've been able to get to. The first one was the opening game of the season, away at Chelsea, which needless to say we lost.

Tonight, however, we dispatched Aston Villa 3-1 at Villa Park, and we did it with quite a bit of style by City's standards. Darius Vassell opened the scoring for us against his old club, and Sylvain Distin - usually at least 40/1 to score given his position at centre-back - stormed through to wrap up the win in the second half.

By the way, if you're a Reading fan reading this, you can put the pitchforks and torches away - every time I'm working on a Reading game I'm very much a Reading supporter, and I was at the Bolton play-off final in 1995 (which Reading somehow lost despite, at one point, being two goals up with a penalty awarded).

I was only 10 years old at the time so it's fair to say I don't remember much detail from the game. I do, though, remember screaming something about one of the wingers in a high-pitched 10-year-old's voice, to which the old fella next to me (no, not my dad) turned round and said: "You're bloody right, son. Keep talking sense like that and you'll have a bright future."

If ever I apply to do commentary on a game, that's going down on the CV as the one positive observation on my footballing knowledge.

To further reassure Reading supporters, it's important to point out that when Reading beat Ciy 1-0 earlier this season, I spent the last 10 minutes desperate for Reading to cling on.

Granted, this was primarily because I'd already written the match report. And I'd accidentally clicked the wrong button and published it on the BBC site - with a 'Reading 1-0 Man City' headline - five minutes before full time. So I had a vested interest in the scoreline staying the same, but even so, I was crying out for that Reading win.

Back to tonight's game and the best thing about it was the fans. For a start Villa's fans were very quiet, which is always a positive (the attendance was a pitiful 30,000 in a ground that can probably hold half that again). But equally the City away fans I was stood next to behaved themselves, which is practically unheard of. Maybe it's just because I've spent a lot of time in their company, but I maintain that City's away support has the biggest moron-to-seat ratio in professional football.

Tonight they just watched the game and sang at the appropriate points, which was a godsend compared to the traditional smell-of-drugs added to the equally essential turn-up-late-from-pub and scream-abuse-at-anything. Once or twice we've had the delightful fall-off-row-behind-you-onto-you, most notably when Uwe Rosler chipped Peter Schmeichel at Old Trafford in the mid-90s. OJ might remember that: he was there with me and ended up hugging a complete stranger.

So in summary the game was good, the team played well, and the fans behaved. It almost makes me feel like I'm missing out... but then we're at home to Watford on Monday night. And we're unbeaten at home all season. That's a match we're guaranteed to lose - I'll stay at work.