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
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a less heart felt “Happy New Year”… A good read as ever. See you next year!
Cant blame the ref, need a settled defence and central midfield, not too much to ask is it ?
It’s not just the ref I’m blaming although it’s important that there’s somebody of competence in black (not in the Luis Suarez way). The ref had a poor game but Uniteds entire team with the exception of Wellbeck were poor yesterday, special mention for Evra, Nani and De Gea. Uniteds bench was a joke, with Giggs and Rooney in the stand, all we had in terms of experience was Anderson, is Fergie really as comfortable with the squad he’s got as he so often claims to be ?