Still Following the Trawler

'...so THAT's how you take a bib off...?' Yes it's a delayed report (as is becoming a trend of mine), but on the plus side it has well and truly allowed me to absorb and reflect any adverse emotions that I shouldn't, but would have, shared with you on my blog. So now boys and girls, I can safely say that, after a messy night on Saturday and a Sunday spent ignoring-slash-digesting the above image that was splattered all over the back pages: I am over it. Over the result, over the disappointment, over the embarrassment of having to face it all while being sat literally metres away from the blue end of Wembley, and over the fact that they'll more than likely break the 35 year drought without a trophy. Why? Because all we care about is number 1 - not whether Citeh get the bragging rights for one measly victory over us while we have been spoilt with glorious last-second wins and stunning overhead kicks against them in recent years. Nor whether we may have to fin...

Media Reaction : United 2-0 Arsenal , 12th March 2011 Paul Wilson, the Guardian Manchester United are still on for a treble, while in under a fortnight Arsenal have gone from fighting on four fronts to concentrating on the league, if that hoariest of euphemisms may be permitted. If Arsène Wenger's players concentrate really hard they still have an excellent chance of denying United the title, though this  FA Cup  defeat was an immense psychological blow. Not only did United win as if the blip of the past couple of weeks had merely been a bad dream, they did so with a much-changed, almost unrecognisable side... Oliver Brown, the Telegraph It is an absurd garment, far too large for him, and on the loneliness of the Old Trafford touchline last night he seemed to be retreating deeper into his consoling warmth as Arsenal’s season folded around him. For  Arsenal  to tumble out of one competition out of the four they once contested might be passed off as an ...

Good. Erm...we're through? Yeh, I know. I don't think many people will disagree with that being the number one positive we can draw from such a poor, lazy performance against a team many were hoping for a double figure scoreline against. Team Selection. Really scraping the barrel here. But suppose it was nice - if only completely predictable - to see the likes of Bebe and Hernandez start for us. Not that they did anything with their time to shine, mind. Gibson . That's what we want to see from Gibo. An assured display, bossing the midfield and providing a good few well weighted killer passes. I t's interesting because the amount of chances he had to pull the trigger, egged on by the crowd to shoot from his 35-yard comfort zone, was understandable given the space and time Crawley gave him; yet the amount of chances he took, instead opting to take a touch too many or simply passing to a team mate instead, was minimal. This is clearly a player lacking confidence through ...

Good. Lindegaard and Owen. Any encounter against a team sitting 47 places below us is never exactly going to have a big game tag attached to it (well, not for any rational United fan anyway). But a place in the starting line-up was a fairly hefty challenge for two players in particular. It was great seeing self-proclaimed biggest United fan in the world Lindegaard finally taking his place between the sticks, but given the lack of threat that was predictably provided from the home side - and with our defence just about able to handle the the overexcited Southampton frontline from causing too much damage - you knew it was always going to be a quiet one for him. As for Owen, in only his fourth start of this injury plagued campaign, it was a real opportunity to stake a claim as Uniteds...erm...fourth choice striker. But seriously, with Rooney going off the boil and Berbatov and Chico impressing time and time again, Owen needs to take his chance when he's handed it. And that he di...

3 Key Points after victory in the cup Beating Liverpool is always good. Beating 'em on King Kenne's return is better...but beating them en route to the next round of a cup competition we haven't won for six seasons while ruining their big day and supposedly season-changing replacement of manager is just exceptional. The game was nothing to shout about and the scoreline well and truly represented that, but the manner in which that solitary goal came and the consequent controversy that followed eradicates every bit of logic relating to our victory. What do I mean? We beat them. Didn't annihilate them. But a United win it was good and proper. However ask any Scouse twat or ignorant pundit and they'll tell you ' Webb gave United victory cos Berbatov dived '. Boring. Dalglish has done, and will do, nothing to improve Liverpool this season. Thankfully due to the lazy nature of my blogging habits, I have two extra bits of information to back up my point. 1) midw...

So…THAT’S how our unbeaten start to the season ended! No one saw it coming, and as long as it doesn’t open the floodgates and signifies a beginning to a detrimental losing streak, I don’t think anyone is overly fussed. It was a bit embarrassing – losing to a team planted at the bottom of the league is one thing, but conceding four (in one game) against a team who has scored only four at home (all season) is pretty damn awful. And clearly, as with every shock defeat we have suffered in the Carling Cup over the years (there haven’t been many in recent years), questions were immediately asked over the pedigree and the ability to gel of our new breed. This crop have shown their hunger and ability already this season – Wolves in the Carling Cup and Bursaspor away in the Champions League spring to mind – and therefore any overly harsh criticism is purely that: overly harsh. Especially when you bare in mind the media bashing we got after our last defeat in the Carling Cup, 0-2 at home to ...

Good. The second half . I can't remember the last time I saw a first half of football so bad, followed by a second half so good. 5 goals in 34 minutes resulted in a bonerific game of catch-up by the away side...until you know who settled things late on for the second game running. I suppose, given their intensified effort levels, Wolves were unlucky not to earn the reply, but really we dominated and played by the far the most threatening attacking football. Smalling . The boy's growing in confidence and stature. With Rio's role at the club not nearly as pivotal as it once was (some suggest that off-field distractions are to blame. And by some, I mean me), what we need is quality and consistency at the back. He was paired alongside fellow young'un Evans (weird to consider him still a youngster given his experience) and in doing so, maybe we saw the appearance of a United central defensive partnership for the future. Replace yesterday's right-back, Brown, with the Da...

Good. We won the Carling Cup in a weekend that also saw us gain pace on Chelsea...even though we played in a different competition. Surely the perfect weekend? Also, again not entirely a reference to yesterdays game, but I just had  to mention it: Bad. Looking away from the result for a second, I was a tad pissed off for 2 reasons. Firstly was of course the non-stop barrage of shit that has emerged because Vidic remained on the field after his challenge on Agbonlahor that conceded the penalty. Where as most cynics - including the miserable likes of Alan Green and Mark Lawrenson - claimed that the ref had got it completely wrong to consequently imply that United cheated their way to victory with pathetic comments such as 'yeh but who knows what could've happened' that completely overlook the fact that we were vastly superior for the majority of the game in the ATTACKING third of the field (Vidic is a defender by the way); others with reason saw it differently....

I don’t think its outrageous, or disrespectful for that matter, to claim that today’s Carling Cup final is insignificant in comparison to recent results. Sticking with the competition, many fans are united in their view that the real  final has been and gone. The semi-final second leg was so beautifully executed – the performance, the result and of course the opposition – that regardless of who we got in the final out of Villa and Backburn, it would pale into insignificance. And in terms of proximity and immediate relevance to us, yesterday’s results in the league can again be considered more vital. Just as they sat back and allowed us to play glittering football in the semi-final, our massive neighbours again did us a, well, massive favour at Stamford Bridge by ridiculously beating the league leaders 4-2; so thanks to the incongruous and highly ironic nature of the league, city are now my new favourite team…and my favourite player? Yep, you guessed it! Anywho, back to today. We’re...

“Well I didn’t expect that, I must admit…” So what did you expect, Sir Alex? A performance full of determination and grit to convincingly see off our lowly yet despised rivals in a passionate FA Cup tie? Well I think, given the circumstances, that was more than fair assumption. After all, apart from the usual romantic connotations and supposedly innate  desires associated with ‘the oldest Cup competition in the world ® ’, we were facing a team 2 divisions below us; that's 42 places lower (that’s right, I counted). So if you've come on here expecting one of my typically apocalyptic and utterly dramatic posts that have followed every blow-par performance this season, i.e. the standard format of my 2009/2010 post-match blog, then unfortunately (for those equally bitter) – or fortunately (for those sick of my monotonous tone) – you will not find one here. Because, quite frankly, I can’t be bothered; and a performance and consequent result of the bullshit scales we w...