ANOTHER MISFIRE

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com )

Well MUFC were meant to be facing Man City at the City of Manchester Stadium in the Carling Cup semi final 1st leg. Well the pitch was technically playable but the powers that be decided that travel conditions were too treacherous and cancelled the match in the name of safety. Well it's the first time I've seen a match called off on those grounds but so be it. Our embarrassing of the fools that run City and who thought sacking Mark Hughes despite him keeping to pre-season targets was a good idea will have to wait till what were meant to be the 2nd leg dates. Fingers crossed. The other semi between Blackburn and Villa at Ewood Park went the same way.

Well we'd already faced Birmingham at Old Trafford in the Premiership and beat them 1-0. That was right at the start of the season. Since then, we've we've never really gotten the consistency to really take the title race by the scruff of the neck. On the other hand, Brum were proving themselves to be one of the Premiership's surprise packages this season and look safe in the top half of the table. A trip to St Andrews for the Reds? Well at least it wasn't cancelled due to the weather. United wound up going 4-5-1 with Rafael right back, Evra left back, Valencia right mid, Carrick, Fletcher and Scholes(captain) centre mid, Rooney up front.

Well United started out looking like they wanted to make up for lost time but the Brum defence looked stubborn. However it was still effectively one way traffic and the Reds should have buried Alex McLeish's team early on. However their goalie wasn't even tested till mid-half and eventually United paid for their lack of ruthlessness. The Reds failed to deal with a 39th minute James McFadden corner and the ball bounced off Lee Bowyerto Cameron Jerome who tapped it it. Brum could then have been two up at half time! Talk about wasted chances - yet again United came in at half time in serious trouble - could we turn it round this time?

Brum had the first chance of the second half but failed to do anything with it. Fine by United as the home defenders coouldn't handle a 63rd minute Evra cross and Scott Dann put the ball into his own net(though we were only given the goal after an argument between ref and linesman). Brum's response came to nothing. The biggest bummer though was that the game not only petered out at that point but we wound up finishing the game with ten men after a dodgy second yellow. Why are we suddenly unable to win games? I know I had a bad feeling about this campaign pre-season but I didn't expect this sort of flatness from the Reds - a bit more edge in the next game please!

Elsewhere, well Chelsea were meant to face Hull at the Kingston Communication Stadium but the weather had other ideas - Hull did everything possible to clear the area of snow but it wasn't enough - here's hoping the Blues will get knackered due to fixture congestion. In the meantime Man City beat Blackburn 4-1 at the City of Manchester Stadium - nice one Roberto Mancini, even though that's said through gritted teeth. Bottom line, the Reds are 2nd in the Premiership, one point behind leaders Chelsea but still six points ahead of City and a detour through the Champions League preliminaries. Both Blue sides have a game in hand though.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced Hearts at Pittodrie in the Scottish Cup 4th round. The Dons looked to be the better side early on and should have taken the lead but Hearts held on to keep their clean sheet till half time. Eventually the Dons broke through though with Mackie's first goal for the best part of a year and then Miller made it two. Hearts had a chance to start turning the game around but couldn't take it and ultimately, this was the Dons' day. Well, Mark Mc Ghee's not going to complain about that result. Very smooth work in an all-SPL tie and some more of that in the league would be nice. For now though, mission accomplished.

Elsewhere, well Mother nature had a good laugh with Scottish football as well. Hamilton drew 3-3 with Rangers at New Douglas Park in one match that went ahead. Other than that, well we had an interesting looking match between SD1 Morton and Celtic at Capielow Park postponed because of the weather. SD1 Inverness CT's match against Motherwell went the same way. SD3 Forfar were meant to face St Johnstone at Station Park but that got called off. Even at all-SPL tie, between Kilmarnock and Falkirk at Rugby Park got seen off. The plan is currently to take care of these matches early next week. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, there's the 5th round to look forward to and Aberdeen will face the winners of the 4th round match between SD1 Raith Rovers and SD2 Airdrie at Starks Park. Well chances are Raith are the safe bet to win that match. Which would mean that the Dons would then be heading to Starks Park to face Raith in the 5th round. Well Raith are in the bottom half of the second tier at the moment and though the Dons are liable to get themselves mugged on occasion, chances are they should get away from Raith's ground with a place in the quarter finals in the bank. And hopefully the weather will be better by then, on both sides of the border.

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