UNITED FIVE CLEAR

 

(Image taken from Sky Sports)

Fulham started last season with Lawrie Sanchez in charge, and the Cottagers swung by Old Trafford midseason to see what they could do. The answer turned out to be, not much. The Reds left the field on that occasion as 2-0 winners. Exit Sanchez and enter Ray Lewington for a short period before Roy Hodgson decided that it was worth getting back into Premiership football. That meant that the later visit to Craven Cottage needed to be treated with caution. Well we still got three points and a 3-0 win out of there so Roy wasn't having an immediate effect. He was still able to keep his guys up though while we went on to claim the title.

This time around, well we're crossing swords with Fulham for the first time relaively late on. This match was originally postponed after United had to play in the European Super Cup. Now it was our last Premiership game in hand. Fulham for their part were certainly doing better than they were last year, with a relatively safe midtable spot but with every team that isn't in a European position effectively still fighting off relegation, it's too early to tell what their final fate will be. In the meantime, they were headed to Old Trafford, it was 4-4-2, Van de Saar was back in goal, O'Shea right back, Rio(captain) and Vidic central defence, Ronaldo right mid, Carrick and Scholes centre mid, Berbatov and Tevez up front.

Well United went surging into the attack from the start and Fulham weren't able to counter by the time a 12th minute Carrick corner came to Scholesey outside the box. Those piledrivers never get old, 1-0 United. Fulham then started to have some good chances but even then we were able to reply and would have made it two had Fulham not managed to clear the ball off the line. We then went one better and put the ball in the net for a second time but it was waved offside. It took some classy passing in the 30th minute to finally register our second, Scholes lobbing the ball to O'Shea who gave Berbatov an empty net. Another goal got wiped out for offside but still, we could settled for being two up at half time.

We picked up where we left off in the second half and there was clearly only one team in it. Cue a certain Mr Rooney to make his return from injury. Cue Fulham not knowing what to do with a 60th minute Evra cross and Park set up Wayne to score with his first touch of the ball! The visitors never looked like getting back into the game after that. It was definately not Mark Schwarzer's night and Fulham barely put up any effort. Great performance from United, easy three points and now we've done with our games in hand we have a better idea as to where we're at in terms of our Premiership chances. The short version is that we're looking invincible.

Bottom line, United are top of the Premiership, five points ahead of nearest challengers Liverpool. You have to wonder at this point who's going to stop us? Arsenal? Forget it, they'll be lucky if they even make the Champions League. Chelsea? A team in limbo and a lesson to all Russian billionaires that you cannnot buy long term succsess. Villa? Impressive but not this year. Realistically, it's United vs Liverpool this year for the title. Could the Scousers overhaul us? Well it has been their best campaign I can remember but you have to say it's unlikely? It would take the most spectacular collapse of all time for us to lose the Premiership title now.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced SD2 side East Fife in a Scottish Cup 5th round match at Pittodrie that originally got postponed due to the weather. Well the lower-division side wound up down to ten men very early on and Tommy Wright got his first goal for the Dons before Jarvan Vidal(defender on loan from Grimsby) did likewise and East Fife defender Greig McDonald put the ball in his own net. After half time, Chris Maguire got two more goals for the Dons and the visitors just had to bow down to superior opposition. The Dons needed a win given that their SPL form has gone sour and this was their biggest of the season,onwards to the quarter finals.

Elsewhere, there was an all-SPL fifth round replay between St Mirren and Motherwell at St Mirren Park. The first half didn't see either side getting many chances at goal but it was the home side that happeared to have the edge. That edge became more apparant going into the second half even though Well also had their chances. Neither side really looked like scoring though and the game looked headed towards extra time when Billy Mehmet finally hit a late winner. That made St Mirren the seventh SPL team to have secured a spot in the Scottish Cup quarter finals, with both the Old Firm sides still in the mixer and a fairly stable Cup run so far generally.

Well now we have the quarter finals and Aberdeen will be facing SD1 side Dunfirmline at East End Park. It was only a couple of seasons ago that Dunfirmline got to play in the UEFA Cup preliminaries, and now, well they're the last non-SPL team standing. On the one hand the Reds can't take anything for granted here, particularly as they got mugged by a lower division side last time out and also because Dumfirmline are in their division's title race. However, the fact is, the Pittodrie crew have yet again had a very lucky draw. They certainly should be able to beat this team so the safe bet is that we'll see the Reds in the semis once again.

For a wider perspective, the UEFA Cup 1st knockout round first leg matches were also taking place. Shatkar Donetsk beat Spurs(or rather Spurs reserves) 2-0 at the RSK Olimpskyi which pretty much dooms their chances of making the next round. Villa drew 1-1 with CSKA Moscow which doesn't do their chances any favours either. However, FC Copenhagen did draw 2-2 with Man City at the Parkenstadion so Mark Hughes's crew aren't in such bad shape. Still, having only three Premiership teams make the knockout stages and two of them looking set to go out unless a serious effort is made does not sound so good. Fingers crossed they can turn it round though.

 

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