LATE SHOW SEES UNITED THROUGH

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

Well it's that time of year again. The FA Cup takes over the sports pages, and for one weekend only, English football fans from all over the spectrum are focussing on one club competition. The Dave Kitsons of this world may snark but anything can happen in 90 minutes and though United don't have any recent record of getting mugged by minnows, you never can take anything for granted in all-Premiership ties. No team can afford an off day here.

Last time round, we faced Aston Villa at Old Trafford. The first half was an all evens affair with United running the show but unable to hit the net, villa barely doing anything. That changed in the second half with Henrik Larrsson opening his United account in style, but Villa had an ace of their own up their sleeve with Milan Baros equalising. Cue a very nervy end to the match as United desperately tried to avoid a replay and it was Ole Gunnar Solksjaer that hit the winner.

This time round we face Villa again and we certainly have enough recent history against them. We'd previously faced them in the 3rd round on three occassions this side of the Millenium alone! The cream of that bunch has to be the '02 match with Ruud van Nistelrooy turning the game round for us with mis brand of class. Villa can still claim bragging rights from the only final between the two sides but that was back in 1957 and the veterans of that match are starting to look ancient.

Well we've already been to Villa Park once this season and we caned them, so an FA Cup 3rd round trip to Villa Park certainly kicked off with the form guide in United's favour. There certainly could have been easier ties, but I wasn't going to freak out too much. Van de Saar was back in goal for us but it wasn't our strongest side overall. Ronaldo was back to right mid but it was Saha and Giggsy up front with the Welsh legend regaining the captaincy.

It was also the first stop on the Fabio Capello "welcome to England" tour and what the new coach of the Three Lions made of this contest is anyone's guess. The first half was a messy affair, particularly when it came to Villa's attack which was pretty headless, their most spectacular shot coming from a Stilian Petrov long ranger. United came close on various occassions, blew at least one good chance and the match ended goalless with both sides needing to step up a gear.

The second half also started messilly with both sides exchanging decent chances but still neither side having any real fire to win the match. United slowly started gaining the edge though, particularly when Rooney was added to the mixer. Now at least one team had the fire, Wayne went close to hitting the net within seconds and then finally in the 81st minute, when Giggsy sent the ball into the box and Ronaldo scrambled it over the line. A messy end to a messy game you might think, but the class moment of the match came in the 89h minute. Ronaldo surged through, his shot came off the goalie and Rooney stuck it in the net to secure United's place in the next round.

Elsewhere, Sunderland were beaten 3-0 by Wigan at the Stadium of Light. There were much bigger mugs of the round though. You had Blackburn, beaten 4-1 by Championship Coventry at Ewood Park. Birmingham, beaten 2-1 by L1 Huddersfield at the Galpharm Stadium. Bolton, beaten 2-1 by Championship Sheffield United at the Reebok Stadium. Everton, beaten 1-0 by Oldham at Goodison Park. Add about 12 ties going to replays and it was quite a third round weekend.

In the 4th round, whatever happens, United are going to have another all-Premiership tie to deal with. It's going to be the winner of the Reading vs Spurs replay at the Madjeski Stadium, and they'll be heading to Old Trafford! Given that Reading have home advantage in the replay, I suspect we'll be dealing with them rather than Spurs. As to how we'll handle them, well we scrabbled a replay win against them last time round and if they're not taking the competition seriously, we should do so again!

North of the border, Aberdeen faced Falkirk at Pittodrie in the SPL. The visitors ran the show in the first half but seemingly spent so much time on the buildup play that they forgot to find the net or even have a decent shot on goal. Having their midfielder Scott Arfield sent off didn't help either. The Dons stepped up a gear late on and went on to look the more likely side to hit a winner but it didn't happen and both sides will need an improvement before their Scottish Cup tie next week.

Elsewhere, Dundee United faced Rangers at Ibrox. Steven Naismith opened the scoring for the Gers with Barry Ferguson making it two with the Tangerines nowhere in the first half. The Gers continued their dominance in the second half but weren't able to add a third goal, despite missing a late penalty. That moves Aberdeen up to 4th in the SPL, two points behind Motherwell and a garunteed UEFA Cup spot(though Motherwell have two games in hand having not played a game since Paul O'Connell's death) but still only two points ahead of 7th place Inverness CT and the bottom half of the table(Caley having beaten Gretna 3-0 at the Caledonian Stadium).

So, the Carling Cup semi finals are up next.

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