Still Following the Trawler

I recently read an interesting and highly refreshing take on the eternally controversial issue of ‘who you should be entitled to support’. It effectively stated that whatever team the most influential person in your life growing up support’s, that’s who you should support. In this interview it was a die-hard United fan who said, quite honestly, that he supported United because his dad did and that he is the one that got him into football; however had his dad supported city, then so would he. This mature mentality is not only completely fair, but completely logical. It is a breath of fresh, rational air that to me (a Southern United fan) makes perfect sense; and the other, more popular perspective of ‘you should only support your local team’ seem out of place and far too ignorant in this modern footballing world. My dad moved to Manchester in the early 70’s. He instantly embraced Manchester – its culture, lifestyle and vibrancy – and in the same way, Manchester embraced him. He inevitab...

http://therepublikofmancunia.com/stats-hows-owen-doing-so-far-compared-to-arsenal-chelsea-city-and-liverpool-strikers   Good. Owen’s goal . An absolute peach that will give him confidence (important) as well as surely giving Mr. Capello serious food for thought ( un important…just a clichéd thing all post-match reports will comment on, innit? So thought I’d jump on the bandwagon). Through to the whatever-round of the Carling Cup . Lets face it, after League Cup success in recent years – a competition in which Ferguson used to completely neglect and endure universal stick over his favouring of more important trophies – I reckon we all now secretly want to do well in it. It’s the League and FA Cup’s little, annoying, brother who in comparison used to be a tad dumb and irrelevant, yet now (due to the fear amongst the big-spending, high-pressured Top 4© of having a trophyless season), it has been embraced and accepted into the season’s convention. Welcome pointless little brother, welc...

As the dust settles, the shock transpires into fuelling desire, and a new day at United has dawned; faith in our boys must resume...we must maintain awareness of our ability and we must maintain the resolute, undying spirit of old. So, let's move on and get on with doing what we do best: fool the others into believing they can topple us. So let the Scum (yet again) falsely enjoy some of this... ...and we'll (yet again) enjoy more of this... Spot the Difference : http://www.tshirtsunited.com/catalogue/tshirts/all/spot-the-difference-tshirt.html

On the 65 th minute, a defence splitting pass from Benayoun found the wanting Torres, who had been quiet all game. With just one touch, he took it beyond Ferdinand – overly nervous and cautious in his approach play; probably too scared to concede a penalty or risk being sent off – and with his second touch, he blasted the ball powerfully over the helpless Van der saar. At 1-0 down, a clearly ignorant yet fair Scouser turned to his kid and said, '25 minutes left. Just watch how United give everything now'. He was almost wishing United would be ignited by the thought of staring another Anfield defeat in the face and go on to produce the sort of wilful, magical display he, and no doubt all United fans, had grown to expect of the eternal champions; and so he would look at his young ‘un and say 'See? Told ya they would do it. Because that’s what champions do'. How wrong he was to even assume such a thing. To anyone familiar with United post-magician era (i.e. Manchester Uni...

There’s no point in building a game like this up; it builds itself up. The history, rivalry and current contention to become the greatest team domestically (Liverpool on 18 titles, United on 18 and all that) sets this fixture aside and is surely up there with any of the most intense footballing duels or derby games in the world. So, instead what I’ll do is have a cheeky pop at assessing and analysing our most appropriate tactics for the game (although apparently we have a fairly decent manager to do that?), especially as the majority of us will ignorantly, yet inevitably, consider this as an easy opportunity to gain revenge over last seasons 2 shambolic results considering their notable absentees: At the back. The back-line, when fit and at our full disposal, should read itself. Van der saar is by far our most competent ‘keeper (especially after our no.2 definitely didn’t take full advantage of his chance) and, as proven with last seasons copious number of clean-sheets, he works well...

Valencia's goal, after a great counter-attacking move, is celebrated by the players. On a night that saw us equal Ajax's long unbeaten 14 away European matches without defeat, we witnessed another convincing show from Valencia, as well as a suprisingly rare contribution from Nani, who's decent diving header in the second was only kept out from a genius save by CSKA's keeper. Good - 9 points in the first 3 games should hopefully see us through into the knock out stages; allowing us a fairly simple and not too strenuous route through. Terrific, terrific. - Clean sheet...it's been a while! - The win today was achieved with a large number of regulars either left at home or on the bench. With Evra, Carrick, Giggs, Fletcher and Rooney all left out, it not only shows our capability to compete at the top with depth and range of squad members at our disposal, it also gives us the freshest team possible for Sunday (with Ferdinand taken off for precautionary measures as we...

4 defeats in a row, and, like I so hopefully predicted in my post after the Bolton game, we genuinely could end their season by Halloween. Here’s my take on the rather obvious elements that may have (or probably definitely have) contributed to their glorious and spine-tingling incredible downfall from last season’s potential. It’s still their year though, right? A 2 man team? Nuff said really. An over-reliance on Torres and Gerrard has been a talking point for the last couple of seasons, but in fairness they did manage to counter those arguments with good performances and match-winning spells in their absence last season (including beating us at Anfield). Yet this time around, it hasn’t worked. In the last two games, they’ve been without Stevie Me in one – well, he wasn’t really there last night either – and El Nino (I like him, ok!?) for both, and the results have been shattering, yet inevitable. Without Gerrard – who as I said, was poor and a shadow of himself as he carried an inju...

Well there you have it. The tyrannical FA, with their double standards and lack of individual opinion and authority, have finally done the inevitable. By charging Ferguson over his truly horrifying, degrading, sickening comments, they have proven – as the most powerful governing body in English sport – that there is not a single ball between them; a pathetic group of sheep who follow their oh so wise and masterful shepherd: the Media and the all-knowing United-bashing public. What exactly is the point of any of this? 1. To ‘teach’ managers a lesson? Clearly not, as the fat Spanish waiter questioned the ref at the Tottenham games’ integrity and experience as a young referee. Why is Ferguson's comments worse? What is the point of punishing one without punishing the other? What is the difference between 'not experienced enough' and 'not fit enough'? Oh, I get it: one is said by Manchester United who will get banned 5 games for their views; and the other is not, so w...

…Well, that was all well and good, until Bolton’s one and only counter-attacking move, led by free-roaming Mark Davies – who moved comfortably from his own half to mid-way inside ours without a single challenge going in – knocked it wide to Kevin Davies, whose weak cross was rubbishy dealt with by Neville, as he was given another chance to whip it in and find Taylor for an undeserved goal. A few issues here: firstly, where was our midfield as M.Davies was untouchable running towards goal? Secondly, why did we have only 3 men inside the box as the second, successful cross went in (that's right, I counted)? And thirdly, why was Gary Neville playing?? After this well-worked yet shambolic (on our behalf) goal, Bolton were granted the sort of confidence and reassurance that nearly all other visiting teams have been offered this season; that provided by the realisation that United are actually pretty average – especially at the back – and can be broken with the right level urgency; as ...

In the 2 games I've attempted the ever-formulaic, routine convention of 'predict the result', it’s safe to say that I probably won't be running to Ladbrokes any time soon to place bets on the seasons remaining fixtures. After only 7 minutes against Sunderland, my 2-0 prediction went cock-up as Bent turned Jonny-O and squeezed his shot past Foster's post to give Sunderland a lead; and yesterday, after scoring 2 with only a third of the game gone, I thought my 2-0 prediction (well, 2-0's a safe bet really, isn't it?) was again going to be wiped right out as we took complete control of this game and dominated possession. We created chance after chance; Valencia confident on the wing, Evra attacking the left as powerfully and convincingly as ever, Berbatov's delicacy on the ball was constantly potent and dangerous, and generally, Bolton posed very little threat; happy to sit back and absorb the United attack, until, eventually, it would surely be too stron...

As the film has just entered the realm of DVD, I thought I'd re-post my review of the film. Enjoy! 16th June 2009: After a turbulent month full of uncertain times and moderate devastation for our club (I’m mainly referring to the Champions League final, NOT Ronaldo’s exit), my excitement towards the cinematic event of my lifetime was eagerly anticipated and more than welcomed. As a fan, one-time supporter and eternal admirer of the footballer/genius Eric Cantona, the concept of a film with the great man as its subject was always going to be an excruciatingly inspiring moment for me. So much so, that as much I have anticipated the release of Looking for Eric , I have desperately avoided finding out anything about the film so as to keep every moment of the ‘Pos's Premier’ as fresh and appealing as possible. To top it off, it is directed by Ken Loach; the most authentic and socially real British filmmaker of his generation who’s films I generally like a great deal (although I'...

...will Cohen (right) continue his goalscoring form against us at OT?...probably not. ‘Not too hard’ or ‘just play better’ might be the rather cunning little responses some of you will come up with in response to this title, but Bolton – niggly at the best of times, but they've obtained 6 points out of 9 on the road – could certainly make it hard for us, just like Sunderland did, and thus prevent us from playing better. Ferguson knew that Wiley’s performance – way below par any way you look at it; biased United fan or not – was not the only reason for our performance and, lets be honest, rather fortunate result. His frustration at the errors and lack of fluidity in the side allowed the referee to become a handsome (well, fat and ugly) scapegoat as far as the media was concerned. The fact that he spent much longer moaning about the lack of time Wiley spends in the gym and not enough time discussing or explaining his team’s lack of effort was a fair reason for the press to jump o...

The Horror, the horror... So, another ridiculously over-the-top and hugely United-hating media-friendly report arose today; throwing this minor story into stratospheric insanity...if it wasn't SAF that said this, would anyone actually give a sh*t? Here is how far those oppressive bast*rds, the FA, are now willing to take it: from www.bbc.co.uk: The head of the referees' union wants Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson banned for claiming match official Alan Wiley was not fit enough ( what, does this retard think April Fools is in October? Obviously a joke ...). Ferguson has since apologised for any embarrassment his remarks after the draw with Sunderland may have caused ( end of issue? ). But Alan Leighton, head of officials' union Prospect, told BBC Radio 5 live the apology was "half-hearted" ( so HE'S entitled to have a completely judgmental opinion like this but noone else is? Interesting ). "A punishment should be a Uefa-type coaching ban, whi...

Yesterday, as I switched channel to catch some of the latest on Sky Sports News, my sister - who knows nothing about football...well, nothing about much really - thought against harassing me for the remote; instead choosing to sit quietly and patiently, and so was drawn to something on the screen. 'So what did Ferguson say then?', as she saw the story of him 'apologising for comments made to Wiley...' etc scroll up on the news-bar. 'Oh, just that the ref at the game last week was unfit...', and at that moment, the video of Fergie's post-match interview came up. '...So he had to apologise for that ?' 'Yeh' 'For saying that the ref was slow and couldn't keep up with the pace of the game?' '..Yeh?' '...Why?' 'Well, that's just the way it is...' For my sister, an idiot at the best of times, to ask such a simple yet important question says alot about the oppressive footballing world we live in. As soon as th...