EARLY BLOW ENOUGH FOR UNITED

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

Well the last time we needed to play in an FA Cup replay of any kind it was last year when the reserves beat Burton Albion 5-0 at Old Trafford. That was only a third round tie though. The last time we needed a replay for the later stages of the Cup was a semi final tie which says something in itself. It involved the apocylpse squad of '99. It was that game against Arsenal won by that goal! And the last time we faced Reading in the last 16 back in 1912 we needed a replay, which we won 3-0 at Old Trafford. All good omens.

What isn't a good omen is the fact that we've already played Reading at Old Trafford in this tie and we only came out with a 1-1 draw. That meant a replay at the Madjeski Stadium. The lucky thing for us was that Reading still fielded a weakened lineup. For our part, we had Rio(as captain) and Silvestre in central defence, Heinze at left back, Richardson right mid, Fletcher and O'Shea centre mid, Park left mid and Solksjaer and Saha up front.

Well how does this sound? In the 2nd minute an O'Shea cross just rolled its way to Heinze who slammed it in with the goalie nowhere. Rio then lobbed the virtually non-existant home defence in the 4th minute to find Saha. 2-0. Richardson found Ole in the 6th minute. 3-0. And I can't help laughing. Reading's defence was absolutely useless for the first half an hour. In the meantime their attack did manage to get a corner in the 23rd minute which John Oster used to find Dave Kitson to pull one back. Eventually the home defence got their brains back and it started to look like we might have a game on our hands. Reading still had two goals to find though.

They were helped in the second half by the simple fact that it was United's turn for their defence to leave their brains in the dressing room. The general interplay between the Reds was absolutely moronic and Reading were more than happy to take advantage. The result was only occassional attacking opportunities and fingers crossed for United. Coppell decided to go in for the kill by throwing on his deadliest assasin Leroy Lita, who then went on to head in a Ulleses de la Cruz cross in the 84th minute. Luckily Reading failed to find an equaliser that was more thanks to United's crossbar than anything else. If Reading had played their number 1 goalie Marcus Hannemann it would have been a very different game. We won this one though, even if it was partly to luck.

Elsewhere, well I'm going to have to give Arsenal an honorary "mugs of the 5th(and 4th)round" award as they got beaten 1-0 by Blackburn at Ewood Park though I know at least one Gooner who'd prefer that I give it to Graham Poll! Middlesborough came within inches of taking the award for real though after a 1-1 draw with West Brom at the Hawthorns that remained deadlocked after extra time only for Boro to finally win the match on penalties.

So, in the quarter finals we face Middlesborough at the Riverside. This being Boro, the one thing for certain is that they'll certainly be up for the match. The good thing is that we've already beaten them at their place in the Premiership this season. The bad thing is they are still capable of slaughtering us in theory. However the bottom line is that, though I'd have preferred to face a non-Premiership side at some point in the competition, Boro aren't exactly mission impossible.

North of the border, the Scottish Cup quarter finals took place. Dunfirmline beat Partick Thistle 2-0 at East End Park. Hibs beat the D1 side Queen of the South 2-1 at Palmerston Park. Celtic beat Inveness CT 2-1 at the Caledonian Stadium in what was the tie of the round while St Johnstone beat Motherwell 2-1 at Fir Park, meaning that at least one D1 side makes the semi final, the second Cup semi final that they've made this year.

As for the semi final draw well Hibs will face Dunfirmline in what looks the better of the two ties while Celtic face St Johnstone in what will be a suicide run for the underdogs. Both games will be played at Hampden Park. By my reckoning that makes the final to be Celtic vs Hibs which given that I can remember Hibs manager John Collins playing for Celtic should be interesting. Definately still not seeing past Celtic for a Scottish Double though.

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