United 2 - 0 Bolton
All of this ‘United are perrenial slow starters’ business is utter nonsense. The season before last we began by putting five past Fulham, it was completely neccessary that year because of Mourinho’s presence. Scholari’s Chelsea remains an unknown quantity but nonetheless it was time for us to put our scoring boots on.
This fixture usually goes one of two ways for us, either a romping four nil victory or a frustrating afternoon when they nick a late goal. As the game wore on I feared this may fall into the latter category.
Oh deary me. That penalty was extremely embarrassing, we should be better than that. The main problem with this sort of thing is that it is not the players, or even the referees who bear the brunt. It is us fans who have to put up with the angry accusations of opposing fans.
The second goal was a work of art, great to see Rooney responding to being dropped, but no-one will remember it and all we will have to do is kop grief for the ref’s decision.
I was vaguely happy to see Gary Neville attempt a ludicrous 20 yard shot with his left foot early in the game. As it sailed past Halley’s Comet and off into the cosmos I felt confident he was close to returning to the player he once was.
Thirty million pounds is a lot of money, when do we start asking questions of Berba?
September 28th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
This was a great relief. It should not be forgotten that Notlob were the last team to win a league game at OT when United scored first (October 2001). And the injustice of the 1958 Cup Final still lingers for some of us.
And of course it wasn’t a penalty. I was right behind the goal and there wasn’t a United fan there who thought it was a pen. But we well deserved to be ahead by then and any team with that nasty little troglodyte Davies deserves to concede a penalty.
But we are far from the finished article at the moment. Gary is either very short of match experience or he is only 90% of the man he was. (I assume Wes is being punished - presumably for his contribution at Anfield rather than his agent). We were very short of creativity in midfield though Daz gave it his best shot, always taking responsibility. Tevez is a great terrier, but terriers don’t win dog shows.
What disconcerted me most was the body language of the team. Berbatov is a great one for standing and pouting when something he tries doesn’t come off. Gary seemed like a throwback from a previous era. But my main worry at present is that I Thought Ronaldo Was Not Trying. I thought he was going through the motions.
Of course in three weeks time this may look like doom-mongering. By then Gary may be the rampager of old, the team will have worked out what Berbatove is doing (shades of Eric in his first back-heeling month) and Ronaldo may have re-engaged his soul. But we must not lose any more ground.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Currently watching us play the Danish boys and Rooney has just scored. I feel we need to smash a team a little bit so we can get back in the groove of scoring 3-4 goals a game. Remember 1998/99 when we beat Brondby 6-2 away? A result like that would do us no harm.
Interesting to read the reports on the Bolton game. I looked at your comments and I have to say I am a fan of Davies, purely because he is ridiculously predictable and limited, but he gives 100% every game and more importantly, every centre half who plays against him knows he’s been in a game when he comes off a 90 minute tussle with Davies.
Not a single centre half to of so far played against Berbatov in a United shirt will feel the same way.
Talented he may be, but I bet the kit man doesn’t even have to wash his kit after a match, there’s not a grain of mud or a bead of sweat to be seen! Come on Berba, you have cut the mustard at Spurs but this is Man Utd and you still have to prove yourself!
As a final note, I was delighted to see Hull beat Arsenal for a number of reasons. 1. Whisper is quietly, but they may just be out of the title race, they will lose at least 8 games this season (2 lost already) and that is to many. 2. Phil Brown is a true football man and a genuine good guy, badly treated at Derby he is proving at Hull to be a very good young manager. 3. I live in England, where we have the treat of the London press, who ridiculously overrate anything Arsenal ever do, not sure if you guys were aware that Arsenal actually created football in about 2004 with the invincibles? Yes they are talented, yes Wenger is a bit of a genius, yes Fabregas in particular is ridiculously good for his age. But the way they are built up as superhuman makes it all the sweeter when they lose a game they shouldn’t!
Until the next time Gentlemen…………….