BRAINDEAD AGAINST BLACKBURN

 

 

Last time around, Sam Allardyce started the season as Blackburn manager and United hammered them 7-1 at Old Trafford. New owners took over Rovers not long afterwards and inexplicably booted Allardyce with no plan to replace him properly and his assistant Steve Kean took over, much to the fans' very understanable annoyance. The last time we did the double over Rovers was back in 08/09. 90s United midfielder Paul Ince started the season as Blackburn manager and on his watch we beat them 2-0 at Ewood Park with Wes Brown one of the scorers before Allardyce took over and we beat them 2-1 at Old Trafford with Cristiano Ronaldo hitting the net for us.

Fast forward to the present day and the Rovers owners were looking increasingly clueless...Kean was looking increasingly out of his depth despite Fergie's sympathy and the Rovers fans knew that their club was going nowhere but down and getting increasingly annoyed. Rovers have by and large become cannon fodder due to their poor defence and while they did arrive for this Premiership match at Old Trafford off the back of a good result but still, this looked a straightforward way for the Reds to see out 2011 on top of the table. For United it was De Gea in goal, Rafael right back, Jones and Carrik central defence, Wellbeck right back, Park and Valencia centre mid, Nani left mid.

Well the atmosphere in the ground was pretty damp and the energy from the players was also lacking. You'd have thought that it would still be just a matter of time before United opened the scoring but inead Rovers got a 16th minute penalty and Yakubu slotted it. After that United started having their uses but this was still very messy play from the reigning champions and half of our opportunities were stopped by our own players getting in the way. This was obviously not Fergie's idea of a 70th birthday present - he doesn't give this level of support to down-and-out managers but still, there was another half to go, enough time for the Reds to get their act together surely?

Before we knew it though, in the 51st minute Yakubu had twisted our defence then slotted in his second to put Rovers two up. Our response was immediate thgough. In the 52nd minute Rafael crossed to Berbatov who headed in then in the 62nd minute Valencia surged through to set up Berbatov for his second goal and United's equaliser. Problem is, while Fergie did freshen things up late on he didn't have much to work with and in the 80th minute Grant Henley beat our goalie from a Morten Gamst Pedersen corner and Blackburn had the lead again. The last few minutes were desperate from United but ultimately fruitless. Somehow, we'd thrown three points away.

Elsewhere, Man City were beaten 1-0 by Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. It was a game that the Blues ultimately dominated in terms of posession and opportunities but still, it was the Mackems that hit the last-minute winner and Roberto Macini's crew aren't looking as bulletproof as they were. Arsenal beat QPR 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium. with the Gunners hitting a second half winner to see out 2011 with a degree of optimism. That means that United remain 2nd in the Premiership and on course for next season's Champions League group stages. We're level on points with leaders City but have a -5 goal difference deficit and are nine points ahead of Arsenal and a detour through the playoffs.

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