Still Following the Trawler

...from the Press Yes, it's late. Yes, it's pointless bearing in mind the far more significant result and possibly detrimental effect the following game could have on our season. But I need to archive this shit, ya hear?? Plus there is some depressing amateur football on the telly tonight – international football I think they call it? So although it now seems a distant, fond memory, let’s reminisce on the United of old…the ones who never got beat! Mark Ogden, in   the Telegraph In a week when the value of a goalscorer has reached new stratospheric levels [ Andy Carroll goes to Liverpool for a measly £35million ], Wayne Rooney finally reminded Manchester United why he was too valuable to let go by re-awakening his dormant goal touch to secure victory against Aston Villa. Two goals from Rooney, plus an assist for Nemanja Vidic’s second-half strike, ensured that United equalled the club record run of 29 league games unbeaten and consolidated their five-point ...

I seemed to already analyse the Villa game in my previous post...well, I say analyse, more acknowledged the fat that we drew against Aston Villa at Villa Park last Saturday. But after much deliberation over a game that showed the best and worst of United – and with another weekend and another tricky encounter against one of the token bogey teams of the league (its Wigan tomorrow for those who didn’t realise) – what better way to look ahead than to reflect? So here are the top 10 things the Villa game highlighted (and why we need to address them before Wigan ’s visit): Poor show on the left. There was a lot of talk about the weakness of our attackers, but how often were either Park or his full-back Evra caught out? Young is a decent winger, but our cover on the left was awful. In summary: we miss Giggs and Valencia . Why am I nitpicking? The whole midfield was poor. Again the injuries on the wing don’t help, but we need to learn to control the game...

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...

As IF I was going to neglect the Villa game! My review of the game is up on my FourFourTwo blog ; but heres my player ratings for the dissapointing display. Player Ratings. Kuszczak 6.5 , Fletcher 7 , Brown 6 , Vidic 7 , Evra 7 , Anderson (Gibson 68) 7 , Giggs (Owen 46) 6 , Park (Berbatov 63) 6 , Carrick 6 , Valencia 7 ,  Rooney 8

Done and dusted with a game to go. THATS the united way. Here are my key moments in the league, the ones that made me (and everyone red) smile, cry and sigh in utter contentment at being the best. Again... 10 18th February. Fulham at home. 3-0 The result of this game-in-hand put us 5 points clear as ten days earlier we claimed top spot (and stayed there till the end of the season) with a 1-0 win at Upton Park; youngster Ryan Giggs showing that he can still anialate defences without the need of a Vieira assist. Not the most memorable game, but truly special for those who witnessed that other whipper-snapper Paul Scholes pass the ball like Jesus Christ. Also Berbatov scores the goal of the season. 9 11th January. Chelsea at home. 3-0 Our one and only win against the other 'top four', but this solid, comfortable and fairly flattering result (for Chelsea. It should have been 5) showed for the first time this season that we truly have what it takes to retain our title. 8 21st April...