Still Following the Trawler

1. Rooney who? I can guarantee that, aside from the ridiculousness of the whole Rooney ban, no United fan was genuinely annoyed at losing Wazza for two games. Yes, he's finally hit form and become essential in this run-in...but has that been at the expense of the League's best striker? Rooney and Berbatov haven't started a game together since the Liverpool defeat - hardly a game we'll remember for the great work of our men up-front - and that was the last time Berbs started a game full stop. Since the 4-0 Wigan win in February, Rooney has started all eight games (until the Chelsea game last Wednesday) and has hit an awesome seven goals in the process. Whereas poor Berbatov has only started that one and has managed the one goal, coming off the bench to win it against Bolton a couple of weeks ago. But he has proven this season, even coming off the bench as he has had to in the past few games, to be a truly class act. And thankfully by the looks of things his absence from...

The thought going into yesterdays game at Craven Cottage – a place we haven’t had a League win for three seasons – was that avoiding a repeat of last season’s debacle (0-3, Scholes had a shitter etc) would have been ideal. But that naïve view would have altered immediately after a glance at the top of the table that read ‘6 points’ and ‘For: 12 ;  Against: 0 ’ next to Chelsea ’s name. A win, against our most prominent and contemporary bogie team, was therefore nothing less than essential. Well Scholes, the current darling of the Premiership, didn’t have a shitter and continued in his rejuvenated ways by scoring an ‘early-Noughties Scholes’ beauty. But as it was, and how it so avoidably shouldn’t have been, the curse of the cottage (copyright ‘When the Seagulls Follow the Trawler…’ 2010) struck again. And more pressingly, the ‘curse’ of last season’s consistently average brand of football has, at such an early stage, struck again. The immediate and all too obvious post-match crit...

You felt that a game like this - starting off slowly and massively frustrating us for the entirety of the first 45 minutes - would simply turn out to be 'one of those days'. However in contrast, Fulham's brave resilience was just not enough against the current might of in-form and in the mood United. Come full-time, we came away with a handsome and thoroughly deserved scoreline thanks to Rooney's 24th, 25th and Berbatov's 10th of the season. A response was vital, not only after the annihilation at Craven Cottage in December, but also due to last nights results that saw Chelsea resume their lead at the top and Arsenal leap-frog us to claim 2nd spot. A strong, convincing performance however - showing that Wednesday's result was neither a fluke nor a walkover due to the utter shiteness of the weakened opposition - was just as important. Rooney and, more so, Berbatov worked perilously all afternoon and when Rooney finally broke the deadlock after 30 seconds of the r...

I have always prided myself on being almost the antithesis of a red-tinted United supporter; one who constantly replaces gloating ignorance fuelled by the success of the past with genuine realism and understanding of the current game. I will always maintain a respect for our past achievements and the clubs stature, but this will never - and should never - interfere with my perspective or analysis at our current state. As a result however, I have been criticised all too often about my somewhat negative, defeatist attitude towards United this season; being constantly told to ‘calm the f**k down’ and being thrown a tirade of statistics regarding our goalscoring record and points this season against last seasons. Nearly every time I have seen United this year (except for our one brilliant performance at White Hart Lane and of course the Manc derby, which was magical) I have written about our ineffectual, lethargic style and inability to propel into a unique gear that will kill teams off; o...