BACK HOME AND STILL WINNING

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

Stoke aren't a team that we'd faced in the Premiership as we know it prior to this season. We'd only faced them once in the Fergie era previously, in a Coca Cola Cup tie back in 93/94. The last time we faced them in ithe old First Division was in the 1984/85 season. Ron Atkinson was the gaffer and Paul McGrath, Norman Whiteside, Bryan Robson, Gordon Strachen and a young Mark Hughes were the main men on the pitch. The Potters beat us 2-1 at their old Victoria Ground before we gave them a reality check, hammering them 5-0 at Old Trafford, sending them down. We went one better in the 83/84 season when we did the double over them, beating them 1-0 at both the Victoria Ground and Old Trafford.

A generation later and Stoke are back in the top flight. We've already beaten them 5-0 at Old Trafford and since then Stoke have found themselves in a predictable relegation struggle. However on home turf they've given a few big names quite a match and so Fergie had a point about being slightly nervous with the first Premiership stop for the new club world champions being Stoke's new Britania Stadium. Gary right back and captain, Vidic and Evans in central defence, O Shea left back. Scholes and Fletcher in central midfield, Giggsy left mid. It was time to make a last surge for the league title and three points here certainly looked workable.

It was Stoke that was doing most of the attacking play as it took a while for United to get warmed up but though Ricardo Fuller certainly proved to have his uses, they didn't extend to getting the ball into the net, in fact on one attack, a Stoke player lost his boot while in posession! United started to get their act together afterwards but though we certainly had the opportunities, it proved to be nothing that the home defence couldn't deal with, our attackers suffering from misplaced passes and innacurate freekicks. An iffy first half that resulted in snarks from my nine year old Blackburn supporting nephew when he later saw the game on Match of the Day! I reminded him the second half was yet to come.

It was United that was attacking at the start of the second half but the Stoke goalie kept getting in the way. The Potters weren't done attacking yet either though, and the two sides exchanged opportunities, neither as yet coming up with anything. The game got even more interesting when Stoke found themselves down to ten men, by which point Fergie had shuffled his attacking pack with Stoke deceding to hold out for a draw. That plan ultimately didn'ty work though, in the 83rd minute Gary crossed to sub Berbatov who found Tevez and the Argie assasin hit the winner. Job done, another three points though credit to Stoke for giving us a match.

Elsewhere, the big match on the schedule finished with Villa drawing 2-2 with Arsenal at Villa Park, Gunners fans leaving dissapointed after their side lost a two goal lead, surely the Sunk Guns are out of the title race now. Then Liverpool beat Bolton 3-0 at Anfield, a smooth performance from the Scousers that means that they end 2008 unbeaten at home in the Premiership and ensuring that they remain top of the league for the time being. In the meantime United moved back up to third in the Premiership, level on points with Villa and getting frced into the Champions League preliminaries but with a +8 goal difference while seven points behind the Scousers with two games in hand.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced Hearts at Pittodrie in the SPL. Well this was certainly an interesting game with the Dons picking up an injury early on. On a more positive note the Reds also did most of the attacking and Lee Miller opened the scoring before half time. In the second half, Hearts kept hacking but the Dons kept attacking and should have gone two up. Cue more ugly business during a Hearts corner and that left the Jambos going down to ten men. Meanwhile, the Dons held out. A great result for the Dons here against the team they are looking to overhaul that gives them their fourth win in a row. That wraps up 2008 at Pittodrie.

Elsewhere, Kilmarnock faced Hibs at Easter Road. Daniel Invincible opened the scoring early on for Killie with Allan Russel making it two soon afterwards. Hibs levelled before half time though thanks to two pens from Dean Shiels. Killie retook the lead early on in the second half with Invincible getting his second goal and despite Hibs having more of the play in the second half, the home side weren't able to find an equaliser and Garry Hay finnished the game off for Killie. That leaves the Dons in 5th place in the SPL, just the one point behind Hearts and a Europa League spot while five points ahead of Kilmarnock and the bottom half of the table.

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