Man Utd Fans Blog

I spent Saturday night with Peter G, being served by David Bellamy lookalikes, all kinds of beer at a CAMRA festival in Miles Platting. The beer was going down my grid with an ease that past experience should’ve made me wary of but I carried on supping happily. Only on the way to Chorlton Street this morning to pick up the Red Issue/UWS coach to Arsenal did I realise how leathered I was last night. Mercifully, the atmosphere on the coach was very appropriate for a Sunday morning where people were chatting happily, but quietly about life, love and United.

A pretty smooth ride to Ashburton Grove was wrapped up by about 1.30 where I then started searching for a ticket. Bumping into a couple of lads that I know who are ticket brokers outside Arsenal tube station, I was told that the ticket was costing for the United end, something between £250.00/£300.00. I met up with Red Peter in the Worlds End pub near Finsbury Park, he’d got hold of a ticket from an Arsenal mate of his, sat amongst gooners and was trying to find one for me. After watching the City match in a pub full of Arsenal fans, who greeted the City win with expected glee, I walked back to the ground to see what the score was. I got a phone call off davids who was working the ticket near the North Bank, telling me he had an Arsenal fan next to him who wanted £100.00 for his ticket. With tickets for the United end being like rocking horse shit and tickets elsewhere, hardly abundant, I told davids that I’ll have the ticket, sods law would dictate that I was at the polar opposite end of the ground from where he was but I raced round there as fast my slighly knackered 38 year old legs would let me. It was a surreal experience being sat like a trappist monk amongst Arsenal fans, I don’t as a rule, make a habit of watching the match with opposition supporters. In March 1993, I paid what was at the time, the astronomical sum of £20.00 to sit in the Kemlyn Road stand at Anfield among Liverpool fans. Mark Hughes scored with a header from a Ryan Giggs cross and I, with the wisdom that you can expect out of a 19 year lad, jumped up and down in celebration. Liverpool fans close to me were not in a very hospitable humour and in the ensuing confusion, a scouser who’d grabbed hold of me had somehow ended up with a busted nose. Nowadays, I’m a lot wider both mentally and alas, physically too.

United ran Arsenal ragged in the first half yesterday, Nani, Giggs and Valencia were cutting through the Arsenal defence, Johan Djourou in particular, like a hot knife through butter. It was murder trying to maintain a poker face whilst United were attacking Arsenal with such vigour but worse than that, a few times I wanted to scream at Nani over his sometimes abysmal final ball, but I’ve kept my mouth shut whilst Mount Vesuvius is spilling over in my chest. Arsenal had chances in the first half but due to Walcott’s ball control looking like he was playing with a rugby ball, they were wasted. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with the exuberance of his eighteen years, gave United’s defence an awkward time in the first half yesterday. In first half injury time, Giggs had so much time to look up and pick out Antonio Valencia, that he just stopped short of lighting up a cigar before delivering the ball. Around me, Arsenal fans were screaming in horror when they saw the space and time that Giggs had been allowed on the ball. There was a demeanour of resigned inevitability from the home support near me when Valencia, unusually for him, scored with a free header in the six yard box. Too easy was the cry from the gooners around me, it wasn’t the first, or the last time this afternoon they lamented with them words.

Half time and early second half was a real eye opener, I reckon when the second half kicked off, a third of the home supporters were down in the concourse. At Old Trafford, I don’t expect everybody to return to their seats on the nose for second half kick off but I wouldn’t expect that many to be not watching. The middle tier of the Emirates stadium was virtually empty for the first five minutes of the second half. Then we have the Arsenal fans themselves. It’s no lazy stereotype that Highbury was known as the library for it’s atmosphere. Whilst the seats, view and facilities at Highbury made it one of the best stadia I’ve ever been to, Arsenal fans have always had the too cool for school attitude when it comes to supporting their team. It dosen’t help their cause that they have clueless bigots like alleged comedians Alan Davies and Rory McGrath plus Piers “the truth” Morgan as their most famous fans. Whilst I came across one or two genuine and decent Arsenal fans yesterday in the pub, most of the people who occupy the Emirates stadium appear to be the kind of people who host dinner parties in their Islington townhouse whilst having Lighthouse Family CDs as background music, drinking mid priced red wine and swopping spouses.

I was in the top tier of the Clock end, literally just above the United fans on the bottom tier. The noise volume coming from the United end was very disapointing especially as United have always had a very boisterous travelling support. According my friend Neil who was in that part of the ground, the regular away faces spread out too much behind the goal. A load of tourist’s were in the United end, the type of people that Roy Keane famously lambasted after a Champions League game at Old Trafford in 2000 against Dynamo Kyiv.

After Robin Van Persie on 51 minutes, missed a sitter after Tomáš Rosický had capitalised on Chris Smalling falling over, he made no mistake twenty minutes later, sweeping the ball past a despairing Anders Lindegaard for Arsenal’s equaliser. All around me, Arsenal fans erupted whilst I’m stood clapping my hands through gritted teeth that must have made me look like a horse. I couldn’t believe that United had conceded an equaliser yet again in a game we should’ve been out of sight in. Arsenal, while they ain’t going to win the league anytime soon are no mugs, they beat one of the best teams I’ve ever seen, Barcelona, in the first leg of a European Cup match last March and in the process, completely naused up my betting slip. They’re a fragile team but one that when their confidence is up. are a real danger. I quietly feared yesterday that they’d now take control of the game but next thing I remember was a chorus of boos from the home support over the introduction of the well known feminist, Andrei Arshavin brought on in place of the lively Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Seconds later, Antonio Valencia goes past Arshavin like he’s invisble before crossing the ball for Danny Wellbeck to slam into the Arsenal net from ten yards. There is definetly a growing undercurrent of discontent amongst the Arsenal fans with Wenger. It won’t get to the disgraceful campaign that Blackburn fans have waged against Steve Kean, at leat I hope it dosen’t but there was a lot of people calling for Arsene Wengers head walking out of the stadium yesterday. Like last August, United could’ve made it a cricket score against Arsenal but despite that minor quibble, a win at Arsenal is always a great result.

Another erratic performance today from United against a poor Bolton side that hopefully, will go down at the end of this season and take their three eyed, six fingured inbred fans with them back to where they belong. Before last weekend, I watched United play poorly against Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United and I genuinely feared of what could’ve happened against City. United were outstanding in the first half at City and brilliantly weathered a predictable storm in the second half from a City side playing kamikaze football. If United had played the same way against City last weekend as they did against Bolton today, United would’ve lost. It’s a given that United fans have difficulty bothering to engage in the inane banter for matches against opposition who have followers as risible as Bolton Wanderers. The more worrying thing is that United players appear to have a similar approach. Last week proved that United are more organised, disciplined and motivated in a bigger game than they are against the poor calibre of opposition that they played today. Blackburn exposed this on NewYears eve and Newcastle made it worse a couple of days later.

 After a blatant trip on Danny Wellbeck by Zat Knight on 21 minutes, Wayne Rooney forced a great save from Bolton Hungarian goalkeeper, Ádám Bogdán from the resulting penalty. This was Rooneys second penalty miss in a week and this was just symbolic of the day he had. Wayne Rooney had a one of them days where he couldn’t do anything right. Flicks and passes weren’t coming off and his first touch was wayward. As bad a game as Rooney had the great thing is that he never once went missing. Always available, always harrying and always chasing the ball, it was just one of them days. In first half injury time, the other half of United’s home guard, Paul Scholes, scored his first goal for United since a scorcher at Craven Cottage in August 2010. This goal was a more like a goal Javier Hernandez would score than Paul Scholes. It actually reminded me of a goal he scored against the same opposition in September 1995. I saw Scholes make three top class tackles today. There’s been all kinds of things said about his tackling, I’ve winced and squinted myself once or twice when he’s gone for 50/50 ball over the years. It’s as if in retirement, he’s somehow learned to tackle. Whether he could/can tackle or not, Paul Scholes is one of the best footballers I’ve ever seen, if he could have tackled like Roy Keane, Bryan Robson or Remi Moses, he would’ve been the best player I ever saw. There’s been a lot of moaning about Scholes coming out of retirement and I like the circumstances of him coming back as much as anybody else does. The fact is, desperation or not, Tom Cleverley is too inexperienced to take on his mantle at the moment and Scholes, whether he’s 27, 37 or 47 is by some distance, United’s best player on the ball.

The final score of 3-0 made it look at more comfortable for United than it was. There were a few anxious moments in the second half, standout moment being Rafael’s goalline clearance from a Petrov header five minutes before Danny Wellbeck put everybody’s mind to rest on 74 minutes with an excellent finish from a pass from Rooney. The move to the goal managed to temporarily injure both Rooney and Wellbeck. A clumsy challenge from Adam Ricketts injured Danny Wellbeck and he was down for a couple of minutes before Javier Hernandez replaced him five minutes later. Ten minutes later, Michael Carrick seized on a fantastic pass from Ryan Giggs to casually pass the ball into the Bolton net for his first goal at Old Trafford since February 2010. Carrick is a confidence player, I don’t think he’s been the same since United were well beaten by Barcelona in Rome, May 2009. With two excellent goals in the last four weeks and with United’s wafer thin resources, this would be a good time for him to start playing well again.

In two days time, it will be the 25th anniversary of Sir Alex Ferguson’s first FA Cup match as Manchester United manager which was won 1-0, with a goal by Norman Whiteside, against Manchester City. Over the last twenty five years, Ferguson’s been written off countless times by the certain people in the media. The first time was in the winter of 1989, the latest time was last week. Yet again all the obituaries have been written in haste, the front cover of this months 442 magazine was obviously commisioned with a United defeat at the Bradford gasworks stadium (thank you Mr Cousins) in the FA Cup expected. After the last match at Old Trafford between United and City, this is the first Manchester derby I’ve looked on with any trepidation since the 3-3 draw at Maine Road in October 1990, the last time City had a side that could’ve been considered somewhere near equal to United.

City today, were virtually at full strength. Sure, Yaya Toure has been collared by the Ivory Coast for African Nation’s cup but his replacement, Nigel De Jong ain’t a bad player to have as back up. City rested first choice keeper Joe Hart and replaced him with Costel Pantilimon, they can’t even say that the change of keeper weakened them as there was nothing Pantilimon could have done with any of Uniteds first half goals. Vincent Kompany was sent off for a two footed tackle on Nani on twelve minute’s, two minute’s after Rooney had headed United into the lead. In my opinion, the sending off was harsh, definetly a foul and a yellow card but not a sending off. Whilst Kompany may have been unlucky to have been sent off, the way City collapsed between then and half time is an indictment on them. Today in the first half, the pressure was really on for City and they can’t use the excuse of being a man down for that collapse. Any team with City’s aspiration’s should be able to cope with the loss of one man, no matter how harsh the decision or how important the player is to the team, which Vincent Kompany obviously is. The one City player who scares the shit out of me when he’s got the ball, David Silva, was anonymous throughout the entire game. The other dangerman Sergio Kun Aguero was a menace that was generally kept well under control apart from obviously the 64th minute when he seized on a James Milner cross after he’d capitalised on a mistake by a very rusty Paul Scholes.

I’ve since heard that from pundits and journalists that Wayne Rooney scored for United, against the run of play on 10 minutes. It must have been a similar run of play that the absent today, Mario Balotelli scored at Old Trafford in October as I never felt United were under any serious threat before City scored. Danny Wellbeck scored a beauty on 31 minutes with a swivelling volley that surprised Costel Pantilimon in the City goal. United were going for City with some gusto. Aleksandar Kolarov made a clumsy challenge on Wellbeck on 39 minutes for a definite penalty, Rooney forced a great save from Pantilimon but heads in the rebound. Before the match a win, any win would’ve been more than welcome. We’re now all dreaming of avenging the 6-1 defeat in October, especially when the magnificent Wellbeck just fails to connect in the six yard box in first half injury time. With all the momentum in United’s favour, half time was a nuiscance, it gave City time to regroup. When Aleksandar Kolarov scored with a perfect free kick, after a pretty soft decision from referee Chris Foy on 48 minutes, even with a man advantage, we knew it wasn’t going to be straight forward. Two minutes before Aguero brought the game back to 3-2, Valencia was tripped in the City box by Aleksandar Kolarov, for a blatant penalty which was waved away, by referee Chris Foy. After Aguero scored, it was a very nervous last 25 minutes.

United have had a couple of bad performance’s and defeat’s lately. Before today’s match, any win would’ve been welcome for United, bearing in mind City’s form and the feeling of dread amongst my red brethren for this game. With City’s failure to sell all their tickets for this fixture and with today’s result, it saves the deeply religious City fans of being in the moral Quandary of what to do on Sunday afternoons when their team are at home. Since the final whistle, a couple of hours ago, I’ve had text’s and phone call’s off red’s that I both like and respect telling me that it feel’s like a defeat or at best, a draw after the second half performance. As much as I like and respect these guy’s, I think it’s complete bollocks. United have won a game, back’s to the wall, away from home against a team that on present form, are the best in the country. There’s a lot of talk of papering over the cracks, especially with Scholes coming out of retirement but the crack’s have been getting papered over ever since them parasites seized control of the club in 2005. Whilst City have been running round like Viv Nicholson after too many Babycham’s and financial armagedon might only be round the corner for United, we might as well enjoy days like today as we’ve all known for a long time what’s coming.

United were robbed by an incompetent linesman and a spineless referee last time they played Newcastle United in late November. Howard Webb tonight made mistakes which should stop any mard arsed Newcastle players or fans posting any pictures of him in a superimposed United kit on twitter (ala Ryan Babble, another proud and dignified moment in Liverpool’s recent history) but that aside, United tonight were appalling and the mistakes the referee made tonight were only marginal to the impact of the game. Tonight was so bad as I’m not as much angry about it, but depressed. United started well with plenty of possesion, but never looked dangerous. Demba Ba hooked Newcastle into the lead, against the run of play, just after half an hour. I couldn’t see United scoring despite having the majority of possesion, such was the lack of potency from Berbatov and Rooney. When Yohan Cabaye scored with a heavily win assisted free kick, which Lindergaard got his fingertips too, it was obvious that barring another fabled comeback from the reds, United were going to lose to a clearly hyped up Newcastle side for the first time since September 2001.

Trying to be positive, I didn’t think Lindergaard did much wrong although I’m surprised he didn’t put a shout out to Phil Jones to leave the ball, which lead to Newcastle’s third goal. United fans were in great voice throughout the first half, high up in the stands at St James Park, giving great encouragement to the team. They naturally never got any credit off the SKY sports commentators, but this supposedly legendary toon army atmosphere, peddled by lazy journalist’s and commentator’s was almost none existant, I know from past experience that the geordies don’t wake up ’til they score, then the noise is pretty impressive, I can also say the noise when virtually every other team score is impressive. Other thing is that despite the fact that United have been stop start all season, we’re still, somehow, only three points behind a City team that has, barring the odd slip up, been destroying all comers. There’s still time and oportunity to rescue this season if Fergie is prepared to take a plunge into the transfer market. It’s all well and good people saying that new players shouldn’t be signed just for the sake of it, on a kneejerk etc. United desperately need some fresh impetus and if Sir Alex Ferguson’s prepared to gamble £7 million of the clubs money on a player that he’d never even personally seen (Bebe, summer 2010), then I can’t believe that he’s not aware of a player circulating in Europe who could give United’s midfield a serious boost. The harsh truth is that this United squad are not going to win the title with City looking increasingly strong, there’s got to be an addition. This Sunday’s FA Cup match at the yet to be sold out Beswick gasworks stadium, is gonna be interesting

Consensus amongst Reds on the quiet was that there would be disappointment if United didn’t make a decent dent into City’s superior goal difference today. Last season, United put seven goals past a better Blackburn side that took to the pitch for this match. Before today’s match, Blackburn had won two league games all season although they had gone to Anfield on Boxing Day and surprised everybody by getting a draw there, everybody, Blackburn Rovers fans included, were expecting a comfortable win for United. After a busy but flat footed start from United, Blackburn’s first attack yielded a penalty when Dimitar Berbatov pulled Christopher Samba over, just inside the United area, on sixteen minutes, to help referee Mike Dean, make probably the only correct decision he made all day. Mike Dean had a stinker of a game, denying United a blatant penalty about five minutes later, when Evra was tripped up in the Blackburn box on an overlapping run and constantly allowing Blackburn goalkeeper, Mark Bunn, to waste time on goal kicks after Blackburn had scored. The fact that Blackburn were wasting time in the first half is a good guide to the mentality of this backward club.

After Yakubu Aiyegbeni scored the first half penalty, some abysmal defending from Michael Carrick and Phil Jones lead him to score again on 51 minutes to put Blackburn 2-0 up. Within a minute Dimitar Berbatov had scored to bring United back in the game and after playing with some urgency and fluidity, United equalised ten minutes later in the Stretford end with a side footed shot from Berbatov. We all expected a siege on the Blackburn goal which would result in a United winner but whilst United had most of the possesion, there was no urgency or increased intensity in United’s play. What nobody had bargained on was David De Gea, on 80 minutes, making his most expensive error yet when he flapped on a harmless looking corner from Morten Gamst Pedersen. Grant Hanley headed Blackburn back into the lead, nobody in Old Trafford could believe it. David De Gea has made a couple of mistakes this season, the most obvious being at the Hawthorns on the opening day of the season and Basle’s first goal a few weeks ago when he tried volleying a clearance that he could have easily caught. He had six put past him by Man City, whilst none of those goals were his fault, he has looked suspect on crosses and corners all season. Early on it can be put down to bedding in and such forth but when it cost United points against a team who before the game, were bottom of the table and with a very impressive looking Anders Lindegaard sat on the bench, then it could be time to change the pecking order of United’s goalkeepers no matter how much money’s been spent on De Gea.

United’s bench today had Ezekiel Fryers, Paul Pogba and Mame Biram Diouf sat there whilst a fully fit Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Christ, even Darren Gibson were in the stands, rested as this debacle unfolded. I sincerely wish Sir Alex Ferguson a happy 70th birthday today but birthday or no bleeding birthday, he felt obliged to apologise to United fans after the recent disgrace against Crystal Palace, today was far, far worse.

Blackburn is a place that I struggle to find any redemption for. There’s no good cuisine of repute from there (unless you count double deckered corned beef butties), no good beer of any description, it’s a town full of very narrow family trees, more of a branch than a tree and even more narrow minds. In the early to mid 1990s, backed by steel magnate Jack Walker’s benevolence, they were throwing money around with the same gay abandon that Chelsea started doing in 2003 and Manchester City emulated in 2008. They effectively bought the Premier League title in 1995 with one of the most boring, methodical and mediocre teams I’ve ever seen triumph. In buying the title, even then, Blackburn weren’t trail blazers. Everton were the first club to buy the title when, backed by local benefactor, Sir John Moores, the owner of Littlewoods, they won the title in 1963, just after the abolition of the maximum wage. Despite being founder members of the football league in 1888, I doubt anybody outside the North West of England gave Blackburn even a fleeting thought until John Lennon mentioned the town in passing, on The Beatles seminal Sgt Pepper LP in 1967 on the final track “A Day in the Life”. Following their promotion to the Premier League, via the play off back door in 1992, Blackburn Rovers fans had a cocksure posture with their frequent chants of “Loadsa-loadsa money” (to the same and more apropiate chant of what a load of rubbish). Nowadays, that chant is curiously absent from their repertoire with the club’s new owners looking like they’re going to do to their club what they do to the chickens that they originally made their money from. From the swagger and backbone of the Walkersteel millions, Blackburn Rovers fans now have all the aura and confidence of a turkey on Christmas Eve. Today Blackburn, like Wigan, couldn’t sell their allocation of tickets for a match which in their case, is less than thirty miles away from their one donkey town. Whilst they deserved to win today, hopefully this is the last we’ll see of this highly placed lower league club, barring a cup draw, for a long long time.

Next weekend is the third round cup match against City. For once, City fans might be up for a fight with them bound to be having superior number and such forth. This time, they might actually wear gloves before picking up fresh horse manure and launching them at the passing United fans, unlike April 2010 when they did exactly the same thing with their bare hands. Fellow Reds, if you (understandbly) don’t fancy getting caught up in all this, grow a moustache, get blonde streaks in your hair and they’ll think you’re one of them. Lads, I recommend you do the same.

Happy New Year

Boxing day in Wigan is traditionally a fancy dress day. This explains why 200/300 of their travelling 1500 army came dressed as bananas yesterday, there were other more free thinking ones who came dressed as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Lennie the Lion. The rest of the Wigan fans just sat there, so much so that I was beginning to wonder if they’d borrowed some cast offs from Madame Tussauds in Blackpool to pad out the pathetically low turnout of away fans on a bank holiday for a match that is sixteen miles from their hometown. Wigan, like Leeds, is a rugby league town that just happens to have a football team attached to it. Leeds have found their true and correct place in the second flight and hopefully will stay there ad infinitum, I have a feeling that Wigan are gonna be joining them there this summer, having stayed in the Premier League with admirable resilience, since 2005. Wigan are beginning to remind me of Wimbledon, who had an abnormally long stay in the top flight before being relegated, moving fifty odd miles away to Milton Keynes and completly losing their identity in the process. Like Wimbledon, Wigan’s support in regards to numbers is lamentable, when a club can’t sell out their ground for the visit of United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, then to my eyes, they have no business being in the top division. I could sit here all night taking the piss out of Wigan, but it’s a bit like kicking a puppy. At least the fans who came to Old Trafford yesterday dressed as bananas did try and create an atmosphere. They were, in the second half suddenly celebrating an imaginary goal, I was begining to think that they’d been on Ken Kesey’s favourite medication, then they tried riling a pretty bored K Stand by singing City’s Mancini song, to the tune of Volare and about City’s recent 6-1 win at Old Trafford. United fans ignored them in a way an adult would ignore a child jumping up and down saying look at me. United fans, myself included here, were looking forward to going back to the pub to carry on with the festive drinking session that always occurs on Boxing Day and which had been rudely interrupted by, unusually for United, a 3PM kick off.

Since Wigan Athletic were admitted to the football league in 1978, they have played United thirteen times in all competitions and lost every single fixture comfortably except for a league match in March 2006 at the (then called) JJB stadium when United were very lucky to win 2-1 after a pretty gutsy Wigan performance. With that record, anything other than a United win yesterday would’ve been a shock. Saying that, you can never take anything for granted on Boxing Day, like the F.A Cup, it’s football’s great leveller and the day has traditionally thrown up freak results over the years. Yesterday alone threw up three surprise results at Anfield, Stamford Bridge and the Hawthorns in West Bromwich. On the same day that Ryan Giggs equalled ex Wigan director, Bobby Charlton’s record of 756 starts for United, any worries of a surprise result were taken care of within eight minutes when Ji Sung Park scored from a cross after an overlapping run from Patrice Evra. Ten minutes later, such was the confidence of both the United fans and team that when Wigan’s answer to Spit the dog, Antolin Alcaraz, tripped Javier Hernandez in the box for what was to my eyes, a blatant penalty, the appeal was waved away by referee Phil Dowd and nobody got too upset about it. Twenty minutes later, Conor Sammon was sent off for elbowing Michael Carrick. At the time, I thought Phil Dowd had called it right but having seen the replay, I think the sending off was harsh. Michael Carrick said in the post match interview on Match of the Day that he thought that Sammon was unlucky to be sent off but when Carrick had touched the side of his face after the collision, the way people do to see if there is any blood, that gesture alone probably swayed the referee more than anything else. Dimitar Berbatov scored four minutes before half time to dispel any frivolous fears of a Wigan comeback, he scored again on 58 minutes with a beauty and completed his hat trick twenty minutes later with a very nonchelant penalty after Antolin Alcaraz was harshly adjudged to have tripped Ji Sung Park in the penalty area. Antonio Valencia scored a with a low drive into the bottom right hand corner of the Wigan net three minutes prior with a goal that reminded me of Roberto Carlos.

At 11.15 Monday night, I got a text off a friend of a friend in Brighton, telling me there was three tickets available for the match at Craven Cottage on Wednesday at £50.oo apiece. I accepted at once and having made plans to go down to Fulham, I got a pretty underwhelming text off the same kid, telling me the tickets had actually been sold last night before he’d texted me, but he didn’t know this at the time. I could’ve gone down on spec, like I’d done for the game at QPR, but there’s a massive difference between going to London at the weekend without a ticket and all the hassle and mither of going there on a Wednesday night ticketless (going straight from work, Wednesbury at rush hour, getting home at 3am and up for work three hours later, etc).

This is the first United match this season that I’ve either not watched in the flesh or live on the television, SKY sports had decided tonight to show the goalless draw between Wigan & Liverpool live, I believe so as to get one of their quota of crap matches out of the way, satisfy a contactual obligation with the Premier League and maintain a veneer of equality. Having failed to get any kind stream on the internet showing the match, I kept in touch with the match via the very old fashioned method of listening to the commentary on Talksport for the first half. By half time United were 3-0 up with Danny Wellbeck, Nani and Ryan Giggs scoring. Giggs scored his first league goal of the season and also by doing that, scored for the 22nd consecutive season. Just think about that for a minute….

Some people will nowadays describe a good performance against Stoke as awesome (hello Berties), the word’s become overused and thus, cheapened but whatever criteria you need for awesome, Ryan Giggs (to use another cliche) ticks all the boxes.

Listening to the match on the radio is definetly more stressful than watching it on the telly or in the ground as you can obviously only use your imagination to picture what’s going on. In my formative years of being a United fan, in the 1980s, there wasn’t the saturation television coverage of football that we get now, we’d get something like five/six games a season live on television, seven or eight in a good year. Myself and fellow reds of my age were at the mercy of Piccadilly radio’s United correspondant , Tom Tyrell. A man so biased that he makes Paddy Crerand sound like Bob Wilson, he’s the only man I’ve ever come across who could induce heart failure in an eleven year old boy. With United running rampant by half time, there was none of the heart stopping moments that radio commentary gives you and by sixty minutes, I’d managed to find a stop/start stream of the match and United were in cruise control. On 88 minutes, Rooney let fly with a scorcher of shot, the kind a striker plays when his team’s winning 3-0. It was, to then, easily the best goal of the night and it was a nice way to wrap up a comfortable win. Dimitar Berbatov though had other ideas when a couple of minutes later, he backheeled a Valencia cross in the bottom left hand corner of the Fulham net to score a goal very similar to the famous one Denis Law scored for City in front of the Scoreboard End of Old Trafford in 1974.

The only other thing I can remember from tonight of significance was when Phil Jones was clobbered by Clint Dempsey’s elbow in the second minute. Having seen the replay, I genuinely think it was an accident. Clint Dempsey is an honest lad, he looked pretty gutted to have done what he’d done. Jones, hard bastard that he is, played on for twenty minutes but was obviously not right, I’m just hoping it won’t cause his absence from the United team for too long. With the physios room at the moment at Old Trafford resembling the M62 rush hour, he’ll be badly missed if he’s out too long.

Before the match at Wigans DW stadium tonight, Liverpool FC were at their typical mawkish best. We’ve now got a club who prides itself on doing things the right way, the Liverpool way going out on the pre match warm up with t-shirts expressing solidarity for a player who’s been found guilty of racially abusing another player from another team during a match in October. If players from Millwall or West Ham had done the same thing, there would have been an outcry (rightly so) but because them self righteous, slum dwelling wankers, from Liverpool 4 do it, it’s an admirable show of we’re in it together. Somebody pass me the sick bag….

Happy Christmas

A rarity in that United haven’t had a match in eight days, today was a potentially tricky match against a QPR side who’ve given City a hard game recently and they’ve also beaten Chelsea in a game that has since been remembered better for the allegation of racial abuse levelled against England captain John Terry, something that the FA are no doubt investigating thoroughly, bearing in mind the amount of time they’re taking to conclude.

I first went to Loftus Road as a young adult in January 1991 and paid £6.00 on the gate to stand on the terrace, in what is now known as the school end. Despite the small allocation of tickets granted to United in today’s game, I went down “on spec” and managed to get two tickets at face value for £60.00 each, for myself and our kid. In twenty years, the face value of a ticket at Loftus road has gone up tenfold, my net wages haven’t. What hasn’t changed in the slightest in the last twenty years is the layout at Loftus road. The stadium is by top league standards, tiny. Even allowing for the compact nature of Loftus road, the view of the pitch, from wherever you are in the ground is spot on and due to the way the roof’s configured, amenable to an excellent atmosphere. The atmosphere today from the United end was raucous and lively.

When the match kicked off, United went on the attack and within 52 seconds, Rooney had scored. The goal had not only caught the QPR defence cold, it had caught the United fans cold too. There was a split second delay in the United fans reaction to the goal, nobody had believed that United had actually scored until they’d seen the United players leaping in celebration. The header that Rooney had guided into the QPR net seemed to have been a pretty weak one but it outfoxed the  goalkeeper, Radek Cerny. Whilst that might have been a soft goal for Cerny to concede, he more than made amends for it later, with two saves in particular, the first one on 31 minutes from Antonio Valencia one of the best saves I’ve ever seen. United should’ve been out of sight by then but the linesman made a wrong offside call on a Danny Wellbeck goal on 23 minutes and an open net miss from Jonny Evans four minutes later. To my eyes, it was the only thing Evans got wrong today in what else was, an excellent performance from him. On 60 minutes, Michael Carrick scored for the first time since January 2010 when he capitalised on a Joey Barton mistake and ran through unchallenged, to slot the ball past Cerny, in the bottom left hand corner of the net in front of disbelieving and ecstatic United fans. We were stood there open mouthed at how he was able to run through the QPR midfield without a single attempt of a tackle on him. Knowing Neil Warnock the way I do, I’d love to know what he said to his players in the home changing room after the match, especially after that goal. All in all, a great result and comfortable performance from a stadium where United have sometimes struggled in the past. The only gripe I have from what was an excellent performance was United’s profligate finishing/final ball in a match where United could’ve made a good dent in City’s superior goal difference and the fact that I didn’t put two pairs of socks on as my bleedin’ feet were freezing, as I stood watching the match.

United fans, as per usual were in great voice away from home. Rooney’s goal in the first minute put the reds in a great humour too. New chants of “Thursday nights in Amsterdam”, “Channel 5 is wonderful, it’s full of…” & “Warnock for England” were added to the festive staple of “Twelve days of Cantona”, “Giggs will tear you apart” and “Jingle bells…”.

From leaving White City tube station on the Central line, for the five minute walk up South Africa Road to Loftus Road, there was a real excitement from the QPR fans for the match today. QPR fans are by London standards, a load of teddy bears. There’s no moody paranoia on South Africa Road as there would be if you were walking down Kings Road to Chelsea, Seven Sisters Road to Tottingham or the Old Kent Road to Millwall. Bryan Robson was walking down South Africa Road alongside Sam Allardyce and he was constantly asked for autographs and photographs whilst Allardyce was ignored. Robbo was geniality personified with everybody’s request. Outside the Springbok Pub, I asked an alternative ticket trader that I’m acquainted with, how it was going on the brief. Worryingly for me, he said he had none and it was nigh on impossible getting one for the United end. Hovering around the incoming United fans coaches shouting any spare tickets, yielded a big fat foxtrot alpha and half an hour before kick off, I’m making contingency plans to watch the match in a pub in Shepherds Bush. My luck changed at 11.45 when a UWS seller who’d just plotted up, guided me to a feller with a  spare who wanted face value. If I see that UWS seller at Old Trafford anytime soon, he’s getting a pint off me.

This is just the oposition United needed after recent setbacks. Wolves are a typical Mick McCarthy team, plenty of bottle, fight, heart but also like every Mick McCarthy team I can remember, both as a player and as a manager, shit. That United only scored four is down to some sloppy finishing from the reds and some great saves from Wolves keeper, Wayne Hennessy. This was as comfortable a performance as was possible for United under the circumstances. On 17 minutes, Nani scored a goal that was almost a carbon copy of the goal he scored against Liverpool in front of the Stretford End in March 2008. Ten minutes later, Rooney scored his first goal in open play since his goal in first half injury time, against Chelsea in September. With three senior United strikers out injured at the moment, this was a great time to pick up his scoring form.

With United cruising nicely against the toothless Wolves up to half time, it was a little surprise in the 47th minute when Steven Fletcher headed high into the United net in the old Scoreboard end. With this being Wolves though, there was no onslaught or pressure forthcoming in search of an equaliser, I believe both the players and the fans of Wolves were equally as gobsmacked as the United fans that they’d scored. Just in case there was any worry of a Wolves comeback, the outstanding Nani made the game safe nine minutes later and Rooney got another five minutes later. United were comfortable enough to bring on Ezekiel Fryers on 67 minutes for Patrice Evra and Federico Macheda on 75 minutes for Danny Wellbeck.

The other thing I noticed in this game was Nani making a “reverse pass” to Danny Wellbeck on 65 minutes. I saw Giggs do the same pass on Wenesday, proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks. This is a pass which is David Silva’s speciality, I first saw him do it in the Old Trafford derby last February and it created chaos amongst United’s defence, he did the same thing to more devastating effect in October. The look on defenders’ faces, who are running out trying to play opposing forwards offside, only to be confronted with this pass is a picture.

The atmosphere today was a massive improvement on recent games. United fans rallied well to encourage the team from the off. The Stretford End and the K Stand really found their voices to provide a warm, sometimes hot atmosphere on a freezing day. The Wolves fans, were noisy for their big day out to Old Trafford. They sang the hurtful and cutting *Fuuurzdi noyts, shannul foiv (English translation below) and **du blik kun-troy buoyzz, (translated below), listening to this lot sing, it’s hard to comprehend or believe that this part of the world gifted us the singer that is Robert Plant. I will give the Wolves fans one thing, they had a refreshing attitude to supporting their team, instead of singing the tedious self celebrating we support our local team that I normally hear from opposing fans at Old Trafford, they actually adopted the novel idea of actually supporting their team. Points docked though for doing the piss poor look at us, aren’t we wacky Poznan dance.

There are certain clubs who have such history and substance that the footballing romantic/sentimentalist in me believes belong in the top division, Blackpool are one, Notts County another, Wolves also belong in that company. Despite not having won a trophy since winning the League cup in 1980, when Andy “the feminist” Gray captalised on a rare and comical howler from Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Peter Shilton to score into an empty net against the reigning European champions. Alongside Matt Busby, Stan Cullis, Wolves manager from 1948 to 1964, was a pioneer in European football. After Wolves won the title in 1954, Cullis arranged friendlies against teams like Real Madrid, Borrusia Dortmund and the “magical Magyars” of Honved from Hungary. These games gave president Ebbe Schwartz, from the newly formed UEFA, the idea of European Cup. Wolves have made a contribution to the football we watch today that no amount of money can buy. They were the “glamour” club of the 50s, a club which a young George Best in Cregagh, Belfast was a fan of.

* Thursday nights, Channel Five

** The black country boys