UNITED RETURN HOME TO SURGE CLEAR

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

For the first time in a couple of weeks United had a game at Old Trafford. The visitors still had the potential to cause a headache though as they were Portsmouth, the Premiership's early leaders. In other words, this match was probably Fergie's excuse for cruising in Copenhagen. It left us all guns blazing for this game though, Gary at right back and with armband, Evra at left back, Carrick and Scholes in centre mid, Giggsy at left mid and Rooney and Saha up front.

It wasn't long before Pompey got reminded whose house this was. They hacked Rooney in the box in the third minute and Saha stuck the ball in the net to open the scoring. We had no intention of allowing the visitors to settle after that either as we did all the attacking and Ronaldo got given the chance of a freekick in the 18th minute and 'bang' United were 2-0 up. Then Portsmouth thought it might be worth launching attack and OK, they showed promise but came up empty.

Harry Redknapp responded by sending on Andy Cole, playing against United with yet another club since he left Old Trafford back in 01/02. This improved Portsmouth's attacking play to some degree and the game was more even as a result. Even wasn't what Portsmouth needed though and this was another clear United win. The visitors were sent packing off the back of an 86th minute cross from Gary that found the head of Vidic. Another one bites the dust in the Premiership.

The better news though was to come later. Chelsea headed to White Hart Lane not expecting Spurs to give them any issues, and sure enough Claude Makelele opened the scoring for the Blues early on. However Michael Dawson equalised for the home side before the half was out before Aaron Lennon hit the winner and if the best responsethe Cocky One makes is moaning about Graham Poll then he must be worried. That allows United to stay three points ahead of Chelsea at the top of the Premiership table and the title is now ours to lose.

North of the border and Aberdeen stay 4th in the SPL. The Dons stayed in their UEFA Cup spot after a 1-1 draw with Inverness CT at the Caledonian stadium. However the Reds didn't get many decent shots on target in the first half which ended goalless. It wasn't till late on that anyone hit the net, and that was Caley striker Graham Bayne! However Steve Lovell's last minute equaliser meant that the Dons stayed level on points with fifth placed Caley with a +1 goal difference advantage.

That narrows the gap from the Dons to second place Hearts to just two points after the Edinburgh side lost a summit meeting against Celtic 2-1 at Celtic Park. Defender Andrius Velicka may have opened the scoring for Hearts after a goalless first half but Jiri Jarosix equalised late on for the Celts who then grabbed all three points after a Craig Gordon own goal sunk his side deep into injry time. That leaves the Celts 13 points clear at the top of the SPL.

Back to Carling Cup action midweek!

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