After suffering the humiliation of being demoted to the third tier of English football, City’s main goal was promotion at the start of the 1998-99 campaign. They were poor in the domestic competitions as they were condemned out of both competitions, the FA Cup and league cup, in the third and second round respectively. They were far from amazing against the weaker opposition in the league, however their power surged the club into third place in the division and earned them a birth in the play off. City won the play off final and was promoted to the first division. Shaun Goater was inspirational during the 98-99 campaign as he scored 21 goals, and he performed even better the following season as he netted in 29 goals which in turn helped Man city back to a quick return to the premiership as they finished the season off in second place.
They returned to the top flight at the start of the 2000-01 season; however they were unfortunately not in touch with the division. They struggled in the league through out the campaign and in turn they finished off in 18th position. They however embarked on decent cup runs as they reached the last sixteen of the FA Cup and the quarter finals of the League Cup.
The 2001-02 season saw another immediate return to the premiership for the sky blues, they dominated the first division and finished the season off in first place, tallying a total of 99 points. City was knocked out of the FA Cup in the last sixteen as they narrowly lost 1-0 to Newcastle.