CITY WIN DERBY THANKS TO DODGY REF
(Image taken from Manutd.com)
OK, it's City vs United. Derby's are always interesting, particularly when your team need to pick up three point wherever they can. Having said that, the recent City sides can't be described as the cack that they were back in the 90s and trips to the City of Manchester stadium can be tricky(and something best described as blue puke is what passes for ketchup there). The current side includes their own pair of deadly assasins to match the Ruud boy and Rooney - Darius Vassell and Andy Cole(veteran of United's apocylpse squad of 1999), with Robbie Fowler as backup. As far as United were concerned, Evra made his debut at left back
So we have a rumble, and it was United who had the early edge, hammering the City goal early on, though Cole took a pot shot at van de Sar within the first 10 minutes. However the tide started turning City's way thanks partly to the ref being very generous with them...as in hardly any major decisions went to United. As in, during a scramble in the United goal in the 32nd minute, Vassell was definately offside when he passed the ball to Stephen Ireland who set up Trevor Sinclair for City's opener. The ex-Villa man again should have seen an official's flag when Cole set him up for City's second in the 39th, maybe this explains Mikael Silvestre's error in not dealing with the situation.
In the second half, after referee Steve Bennett got given a well earned roasting from Fergie and RooneyUnited looked like they were going to be on their way back, though both Rooney and Ronaldo's early efforts were wide. Having said that, go back to 1993 and you'll find that United came back from two goals behind City on Blue territory before now. Maybe this would have still happened, had the moron in black, after letting City get away with a load of hacks, not decided to red card Ronaldo after a challenge that barely touched Cole! The Ruud boy pulled one back in the 76th minute only for Fowler to come on and finish United off in injury time. If I ever see Steve Bennet on a Premiership football pitch again it'll be too soon.
Elsewhere, Liverpool beat Spurs 1-0 at Anfield while Chelsea came from behind to beat Sunderland 2-1 at the Stadium of Light. That puts United sixteen points behind Chelsea with the Scousers closing to one point behind, not good.
North of the border, Aberdeen are still in eighth place, despite travelling to Easter Road to face third place Hibs. Stevie Crawford and Darren Mackie hit the net to allow the Dons to get three points out of Edinburgh despite a consolation goal from Hibs defender Gary Caldwell.
Elsewhere, Keano will be more happy with his Celtic teammates after they beat Kilmarnock 4-2 at Celtic Park, despite the fact that he had to play in central defence. With Hearts beating Dunfirmline 4-1 at East End Road that leaves the Celts still seven points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
And finally, this has been quite a season for tabloid no-brains. First we have the Sun bugging the United dressing room and claiming that Chelsea were responsible. Now for some reason that I don't get, the News of the World has run a sting on Sven just five months before the best shot England has had of winning a World Cup in my memory! Are they trying to damage the England set up ahead of this tournament? I know that it could be argued that Glenn Hoddle got set up in similar fashion by the Times during the Euro 2000 qualifiers but though Hoddle's comments hurt more than whatever Sven said with the 'fake sheikh' ever would, I wouldn't have backed Hoddle's sacking had he been set up before the 1998 World Cup. What happened with Sven has to be the most irresponsible stunt of all time.
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