UNITED FORCED INTO REPLAY

 

 

Well last year in the FA Cup 5th round we found ourselves up against the Scousers. At Anfield. There's not much that can be said about that game other than we played cack and got beat 1-0. '05 was better though. Back then I was a full time Uni student living in Teddington. I wound up watching our match in a bar at the Thistle hotel Heathrow during the Stargate SG9 convention. Everton at Goodison Park. It was Wayne's first game back there since we signed him from Blues. They didn't like him, he didn't care, we won 2-0.

Well Reading have become familiar foes in the Premiership at least this season. The one bad omen being their holding us to a 1-1 draw at their place, though we did go on to beat them 3-2 at Old Trafford. The last time we gaced the Royals in the FA Cup though was a game at their old Elm Park back in '96, Le Roi and Paul Parker(of all people) were on the scoresheet back then but that was only a 4th round tie. The last time we faced them in the last 16, it was known as Round 3 and the Titanic was seen as unsinkable! It was February 1912 and after a 1-1 draw at Elm Park, United won 3-0 in the replay at Old Trafford.

This match at least was at Old Trafford and in theory that was all the good omens we needed. OK so it was Brown at right back, Vidic and Silvestre in central defence, Heinze at left back, Carrick and Fletcher in central midfield, Park at left mid and Ole and Saha upfront(with the Norweigian assasin as captain). Given that Reading were also fielding a weakened team for reasons best known to Steve Coppell though, it looked like it would be a straightforward win.

Reading clearly had other ideas though. Their gameplan appeared to be to soak United up and try and benefit from the odd counter. Defensively, their gameplan certainly worked. Attacking wise they had the occassional moment but didn't really do much. Either way the game was a bit of a zzz though United did hit the net late on in the half, it got ruled offside - not the smartest decision from a linesman that I've ever seen. Reading then came close but finally in injury time Ronaldo set up Carrick who fired the ball in low, hard and lethal. Your move Steve.

Well if Coppell did send his guys out with a fresh gameplan then it didn't seem to be much. Reading were still trying to simply soak us up despite being a goal down. Which made what happened in the 67th minute pretty much a miracle. John Oster fired in a corner and despite being way outnumbered, Brynjar Bjorn Gunarrsson headed the ball into the net. At which point Reading woke up and gave us more trouble in the last 20 minutes than they had throught the previous 70. That limited our chances of getting a winner which did not happen, Reading embarrassing us for the second time this season and a replay makes me nervous.

Elsewhere, the main result of note happened at Craven Cottage where Fulham faced Spurs in an all-Premiership tie. Robbie Heane opened the scoring early on with a nice goal. Fulham could have come back from that. Instead the Irishman fired in an even better goal and then enter Dimitar Berbatov who fired in two goals of his own to put a dodgy Spurs run in the history books. The mugs of the 5th round award still goes unclaimed though Chelsea are the only big gun with a secure spot in the quaarter finals so far. United and Arsenal both have to deal with replays.

So the next order of FA Cup business for United is that fifth round replay against Reading at the Madjeski Stadium and here's hoping we field a strong lineup there. If we do survive that, then we have a quarter final tie against either Middlesborough at the Riverside or West Brom at the Hawthorns. Neither prospect makes me that nervous though I will definately be rooting for West Brom vs Boro, given that we're yet to lose a match to a non-top flight team in the Fergie era.

North of the border, Aberdeen were in SPL action against Celtic at Pittodrie and things didn't go to plan. Craig Beattie opened the scoring for the Celts and Shunsuke Nakamura then made it two. The Dons then had a revival of sorts in the second half but the SPL leaders were never out of the picture and defensively they were happy to soak up what the Dons threw at them. Finally Darren Mackie pulled one back for the Pittodrie crew but it was too little, too late.

Elsewhere Rangers beat Falkirk 2-1 at Ibrox with leaves them extending the gap between the Dons and a Champions League preliminaries spot to seven points. The Dons remain in third in the SPL though and with a game in hand though Hibs have closed in slightly from the non-Europe spaces. They drew 0-0 with Dundee United at Tannadice Park which keeps them in fifth place, six points behind the Dons and so the Reds can't take anything for granted yet.

And next is the return of the Champions League!

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