UNITED TAME WOLVES, SUNDERLAND STRUCK DOWN BY KILLER BEES

 

 

(Images taken from Soccernet and Beesotted)

 

So, after the headache provided by Burton Albion, United had a theoretical step up in class for the FA Cup fourth round. The last time the Red Devils had visited Molineux was in a Premiership fixture back in the 03/04 season, the then top-flight small fry managed to beat us 1-0 on that occassion though they still went down. Since then, Glenn Hoddle(the most arrogant England manager I can remember) has taken charge of a side still captained by Paul Ince, one-time midfield runner at Old Trafford who wasn't a youngster when he left for Inter during the clearout of '95 and is now 38! For United, Vidic made his full debut with Rio and Rooney the very unusual centre-midfield partnership selected by Fergie.

So, what could United do against an outfit looking for a Championship playoff position? The answer wasn't long in coming. In the 4th minute Saha(upfront with the Ruud boy) sent the ball into the Wolves box and found Richardson who put us 1-0 up! Wolves were now looking to come into half time at just 1-0 and they certainly gave it a try with Carl Cort putting in a decent header...and then in the 45th minute Vidic, having a solid full debut, lobbed the entire Wolves defence to set up Saha who got United's second.

Hoddle tried to overhaul his side at half time but it was never really going to happen for Wolves, the Ruud boy setting up Richardson to make it three in the 52nd minute. From there on in United pretty much went into cruise mode, Wolves man Colin Cameron forced a quality save out of van der Sar and Hoddle threw on Polish assasin Tomasz Francowski but came up empty.

In the suburbs of southwest London though, was what had the potential to be a very tasty encounter. Brentford are in fourth place in League One and hoping to get into the Championship. Sunderland are the dead-men-walking of the Premiership. Bees gaffer Martin Allen was being diplomatic about the opposition but what does that sort of tie suggest? Giantkilling. So along to Griffin Park I go to see what happens(alongside the crew in the right hand photo).

Kick off and something was very obvious, the giant was very uneasy on it's feet. And so Dudley "DJ" Campbell decided that he'd have a little bit of fun with them. Result, the Sunderland goal got peppered and the regular Bees fans were wondering if this was in fact a top flight outfit that had come to visit. The seemingly inevitable Brentford goal did not come before half time though, but a good shot late on in the half from the visitors aside though - it was definately going to happen.

Second half and Sunderland stepped things up to an extent but it was still looking like the Bees' show and then in the 57th minute Jay Tabb set up DJ who toasted his Sunderland marker before slamming the ball into the net. Cue insanity as I spilled half a bottle of mineral water, failed to get a decent photo off before my camera ran out of memory but generally didn't care. Now the Bees fans were looking for two goals. What they suddenly got though was a clearance that only went as far as Sunderland's Julio Arca in the 66th minute, the Argentine slamming the ball in from long distance. Were the Bees fans interested in a replay? No they were not. The players didn't look like they were interested either as a fresh wave of attacks led to DJ recieving a pass from Lloyd Owusu in the 87th minute. 2-1 Bees and I'm not sure if anyone could quite believe it. At full time the stewards tried to stop a pitch invasion. They failed. "Bring on Chelsea" was the cry from fans celebrating the greatest moment in their club's recent history.

Elsewhere,other results of note were Man City beating Wigan 1-0 at the City of Manchester stadium, Liverpool beating Portsmouth 2-1 at Fratton Park...and Bolton beating defending champions Arsenal 1-0 at the Reebok stadium, the second Cup embarrassment in a week for the Sunk Guns.

In the FA Cup 5th round draw, Brentford fans were looking for an away tie against one of the big guns. They'll have to settle for a trip to the Valley to face Charlton. United meanwhile got given the juiciest tie of the round from a neutral perspective, but certainly not what I was hoping for. The Scousers at Anfield. Right.

North of the border, the Dons faced Kilmarnock at Pittodrie in a Premiership match(the Scottish Cup 4th round coming next weekend). Nicholson opened the scoring for the Dons only for Steven Naismith to equalise with a penalty. In the second half Anderson gave the Dons the lead for a second time only for Killie to equalise again, this time through Derkek Liley.

Elsewhere, Celtic drew 3-3 with Dundee United at Celtic Park to stay top of the Premiership while Hearts beat Hibs 4-1 in the Edinburgh derby.

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