BERBATOV PROVES USELESS - UNITED LOOK FINISHED

 

United looked to be in the driving seat in the Premiership coming into the final matches of the Premiership season. Top of the league and with a chance to finish off their nearest rivals at home. Then Rooney found himself injured in the 1st leg of the Champions League tie with Bayern Munich. It wasn't expected to affect England's World Cup campaign but still...we needed to be without our deadliest assasin for the final run in like we needed to be without a lung. Still we had to do what we had to do and that meant staying ahead of Chelsea till the end of the season. Surely we had enough strength in depth to keep our form going while Wayne was out of action.

First up came Chelsea at Old Trafford. Joe Cole opening the scoring for the Blues wasn't exactly what we had in mind. That proved to be symbolic of the first half though, as big as this encounter was, United were not operating on full throttle. Chelsea weren't able to bury us that easilly in the second half but we still failed to take advantage of what opportunities we were given and then Didier Drogba finished us off from an offside position. Macheda pulled one back before the final whistle but it was too little too late. The one game we did not want to lose and it turned the title race on it's head. Now we were the ones playing catchup with the games running out.

Next up came Blackburn at Ewood Park. Well United battered away at the Rovers goal for the whole of the first half but could our guys find the net? No they could not. Did Berbatov even know where the net was? Seemingly not. In the second half Rovers just went all hands to the pumps and somehow managed to smother every chance the Reds got. My pacing the floor in the final minutes didn't do anything to help us score a goal. This match was seen as our last chance to retain a grip on the title. We blew it. Well I had a feeling pre-season that trying to claim four titles in a row would prove too much for us but I didn't expect things to fall apart quite like this.

Elsewhere Chelsea went on to beat Bolton 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. Having seen off United the Blues weren't going to let a relative minnow slow down their run to the title and a first half winner was all that it took to claim the three points. Man City beat Burnley 6-1 at Turf Moor(I don't need to say any more about that encounter) before whacking Birmingham 5-1 at the City of Manchester Stadium(at least Brum equalised at one point). That means that United drop to 2nd in the Premiership, four points behind leaders Chelsea though eleven points ahead of Man City and a detour through the Champions League preliminaries though City have a game in hand.

In the meantime, the FA Cup semi finals were taking place. First up, Chelsea beat Villa 3-0 at Wembley with Martin O'Neill's team managing to hold on to a clean sheet for the first half only to get buried late on by the Premiership leaders. The following day at Wembley Portsmouth beat Spurs 2-0. Well it was in extra time but still, there's no way Spurs should have been beaten by a team that can now be officially decalred as one of the Premiership's dead men. Still, it'll be an interesting final with a Champions League team going up against a side that have been fighting the suits in the courts for their very existence this season - let's hope it's not too one sided.

So, this FA Cup final between Chelsea and Portsmouth at Wembley. What's it going to be like. Well Chelsea won it last time around and Pompey the year before that. This will be the first FA Cup final between the two sides though. And two years has proved to be a long time for Portsmouth. In a lot of ways they have proven to be stubborn gits this season but even before they went into administration they didn't have the cash to maintain a half decent Premiership squad. The magic of the Cup can do anything, Pompey have proven that by getting this far given the circumstances. Still, realistically, Chelsea are surely going to lift the Cup again this year.

North of the border, Aberdeen continued their SPL campaign. Make that their disasterous SPL campaign. First came a 2-0 defeat to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. Then came a more expected 3-1 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox. A return to Pittodrie didn't do Mark McGhee's side any favours either as they found themselves falling 3-1 to St Johnstone despite having taken the lead. The Saints had already turned the game round by half time. That leaves the Dons falling to 9th in the SPL, ten points behind Hearts which condemns them to the bottom half of the table and only six points ahead of Falkirk at relegation. The Dons haven't gone down in my lifetime.

The Scottish Cup semi finals also took place. Mugs of the round turned out to be Celtic who were beaten 2-0 by SD1 Ross County with the lower division side gunning down the Old Firmers with two second half goals. The SPL retained some pride though when Dundee United beat SD1 Raith Rovers 2-0 later on at Hampden Park with the Tangerines hitting the net either side of half time to give thenselves the best chance of silverware for a while. Bottom line, the final is going to be an SPL vs SD1 affair which is symbolic of how wierd this season's Scottish Cup campaign has been. It's not been a good year to be a fan on a top flight side in this year's competition.

So, the Scottish Cup final between Dundee United and SD1 Ross County. How will it play out? Well the Tangerines hadn't made the Cup final since 04/05 and Ross County were already in dreamland by the time they made it to the semis. Which makes this match a foregone conclusion in theory. Yet "that's why the play the games" as the Yanks say. Could County cause yet another shock? I suppose it's not completely implausible. Still Dundee United are one of the more on form sides in the SPL right now. So though you can't rule anything out, the safe bet would surely be on the underdogs having another big day out but the top flight side lifting the Cup.

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