GOALLESS BUT STILL TOP

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

Well we'd already faced Spurs at Old Trafford this season and saw them off to the tune of 2-0 despite one of the craziest United goals of all time. Since then, well the Reds had risen to the top of the league but that didn't mean that Spurs also didn't have big ideas about getting into the title race. In fact a lot of the noise going into this Premiership match at White Hart Lane was that Spurs were capable of beating us on this occasion. That was the last thing we needed. So it was van de Saar in goal, Vidic(captain) and Rio in central defence, with Rooney and Berbatov up front. Basically. about as strong as it gets from an MUFC point of view.

Well Spurs got our attention within a matter of seconds but that effort proved to be nothing that our goalie couldn't handle. United immediately responded but Spurs likewise managed to hold us off and tried their hand at our defence again, in fact overall they, particularly Gareth Bale were causing the most headaches and at the other end, our passing certainly looked pretty messy. Not only was this not vintage United but it was the first time in a while where we'd looked like we really needed to re-discover our higher gears. The first half ended with the game still goalless and I had to hope that Fergie had the magic words needed for us to step it up.

However the second half turned out to be more of the same really. OK it started a bit better from a United point of view but the fact is that we still couldn't put the ball in the net. At the other end Spurs could have got a penalty but didn't and fresh legs weren't livening things up too much. Then Rafael got given a very iffy second yellow and United's priorities had to change. While we did freshen up out attack force, as soon as we went down to ten men, out main priority have to be to get out of there unbeaten. That much we did at least, though I don't think either manager would call it a classic match. Me, well I just just know that we did enough to stay ahead of the competition.

Elsewhere, Man City faced Wolves at the City of Manchester Stadium. It was Wolves that opened the scoring through Nened Milijas but Kolo Toure equalised before half time with the Blues generally having the better of the opening period. City really took over in the second half though with Carlos Tevez giving them the lead, Yaya Toure getting their third goal and then Tevez getting his second. Wolves replied with a pen from Kevin Doyle and a third from Ronald Zuber but they weren't able to find an equaliser after that. So, United remain top of the Premiership, level on points with 2nd placed City but with a +6 goal difference advantage and two games in hand.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced St Mirren at Pittodrie in the SPL. The Buddies had the first serious attack but the first half was largely the Dons show. Somehow though the Reds were unable to hit the net before half time. That changed after the second half though and Vernon headed in the opener from close range. The rest of the match turned out to be pretty smooth from a Dons point of view and the Buddies were taken apart again for Vernon's second. With plenty of teams sniffing around some of the Dons better players, Craig Brown has to hope that he can keep this group together. He certainly knows what to do with them.

Elsewhere, Motherwell were beaten 2-0 by Dundee United at Tannadice Park with the Tangerines grabbing two second half goals before drawing 0-0 with Inverness CT at Fir Park in what was a fairly even contest overall. Hamilton drew 1-1 with Celtic at New Douglas Park and even opened the scoring against the Greens which which was pretty impressive. However then came the reality check of a 4-0 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox. That leaves Aberdeen 9th in the SPL, five points behind Motherwell and the top half of the table and eight points ahead of Hamilton and relegation though Hamilton have a game in hand. What a difference a month makes.

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