MANCHESTER CITY’S strikers have been goal-shy all season, but finally, after 12 games, their supporters got to see the goalscoring celebration of Bernardo Corradi, their £2m signing from Valencia. After opening his account on 13 minutes, he ran to the corner flag and, pretending it was a sword, proceeded to knight a kneeling Joey Barton. He had the chance to repeat the trick on Barton after 33 minutes following his second. The celebrations perhaps merited a yellow card — which could have seen the Italian dismissed — but they were a fitting tribute to Barton, who added a third goal himself on the stroke of half-time. The midfielder was outstanding throughout, even if his manager Stuart Pearce found the whole thing a bit hard to swallow.

“When we signed Bernardo the compilation video was of him bullfighting and I thought the bullfighting celebration was coming out and all of a sudden he’s knighted Joey Barton,” Pearce said. “Now, if Joey Barton receives a knighthood I’ll give the game up, at least if he gets one before me.”

Pearce was entitled to his moment of levity. Coming into yesterday’s game, his side had failed to score in four of their past five games, which perhaps explained why little more than 35,000 people turned up for this game, City’s lowest attendance in the Premiership since they moved to the City of Manchester stadium.

Yesterday, however, they were 3-0 up at half-time and it was no surprise to hear Chris Coleman confess that his own players were “amongst each other” at the interval, verbally rather than physically he added. Fulham had Papa Bouba Diop back at the heart of their midfield, but he and Carlos Bocanegra were overrun by Barton and the excellent Hatem Trabelsi.

City’s first goal was set up by their keeper Nicky Weaver, whose catching and distribution were exemplary all afternoon. After rolling the ball out of his own penalty area, he launched a huge ball into the Fulham box that was cleared only as far as the feet of Barton. He moved the ball on to Georgios Samaras, whose clever flick over the heads of the Fulham defence eluded everybody except the onrushing Corradi and the striker finished well on the volley. On 33 minutes Bocanegra dawdled in his own half and was dispossessed by Claudio Reyna. With the Fulham defence desperately trying to retrace their steps, Barton quickly fed Corradi, who sidefooted the ball into the roof of the net.

Corradi had been hoping to break into the Italian national squad but in the end he only got as far as standby for the World Cup and the demand for the services of the 30-year old striker was not great until City stepped in.

“Historically Italian players are very professional,” Pearce said. “I know that from working alongside (Paolo) Di Canio and I see the same traits with this fella. He can’t understand why we get a day off during the week and when I give them the day off he comes in and works.”

Barton shows a similar dedication to his profession, despite the negative headlines he sometimes attracts. His performance yesterday left us wondering why he hadn’t made the England squad, as he ran the game with his vision and sharpness in the tackle. Nor did he react as he might have previously when he was on the receiving end of a few hefty challenges.

He is also a cool finisher and his goal in stoppage time at the end of the first half killed the game off. The move began when Weaver did well to punch a dangerous cross away. The ball landed at the feet of Sylvain Distin who launched an enormous clearance. Franck Queudrue was outpaced by Trabelsi, who slipped the ball into the path of Barton and though he had run about 60 yards to give himself the goalscoring chance, he was still cool enough to slot the ball past Antti Niemi.

Fulham rallied in the second half and pulled a goal back on 62 minutes when the substitute Hiedar Helguson headed the ball on to another replacement, Collins John, who lobbed the ball over Weaver.

“On our travels this year, we’ve been a lot stronger, a lot tighter, a lot harder to beat,” said the Fulham manager Chris Coleman. “The first 45 minutes were poor and disappointing which was a shame, because away from home we have only lost to Man United so far.”

Coleman admitted he did not want to see Manchester again in a hurry, while Pearce will be hoping that Corradi cannot get enough of the City of Manchester stadium now.

Star Man: Joey Barton (Man City)

Scorers: Man City: Corradi 12, 32, Barton 45

Fulham: John 62

Referee: A Wiley

Attendance: 35,776 Player Ratings: Man City: Weaver 7, Richards 7, Dunne 7, Distin 6, Thatcher 6, Trabelsi 8 (Onuoha 89min, 6), Reyna 6, Barton 9, Vassell 6, Corradi 8, Samaras 7 (Dickov 67min, 6)

Fulham: Niemi 6, Rosenior 6, Knight 5, Pearce 5, Queudrue 5, Volz 5 (Radzinski 74min, 6), Bocanegra 4 (Helguson h-t, 6), Diop 5, Boa Morte 5, C Jensen 5, McBride 4 (John h-t, 7)