JOSE...WE'RE BEHIND YOU...

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

United were now officially on fire, despite the Ruud boy seeing hardly any action and probably on his way out in the summer(not that anyone's officially saying so yet). Next stop was the Hawthorns with Bryan Robson's West Brom side in deep relegation trouble. Once again it was Rooney and Saha up front for what looked like a pretty straightforward win.

Well West Brom had the first attack worthy of the name but it wasn't long before United turned the tide, setting up camp with a freekick before picking up a corner in the 16th minute from which Giggsy sent the ball to Saha who slammed it in with his head. From there on in the match generally evened out with West Brom never really looking like equalising.

The second half, like the first started decently for West Brom and both sides had some decent shots early on only for United's pressure to get more of a payoff, Ronaldo setting up Saha who had to trap the ball before slotting in number two. After that, the only thing the home side could do was go all out attack and they breached United in the 79th minute when ex United man Johnathon Greening fired in a corner which Nathan Ellington headed in. After that though, United were in no mood to allow the oppisition an equaliser. Chalk up another three points.

Elsewhere, Liverpool had already picked up one Premiership win, battering Fulham 5-1 at Anfield before following that up with a 3-1 win over Newcastle at St James's Park to close within two points of United. The tasty result of the weekend turned out to be Fulham beating Chelsea 1-0 at Craven Cottage so that now the Cocky One and crew are only twelve points ahead of United who have a game in hand over the Blues and two over the Scousers.

In the UEFA Cup 2nd knockout round 2nd leg Middlesborough took on Roma in the Stadio Olimpico and picked up an away goal through Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. The Italian giants and competition favourites swung the game round with two goals from Alessandro Mancini but fell to bits late on finishing the tie level at 2-2 with Boro going through on away goals which is an amazing result that might put them in the mixer to with the entire tournament, though they'll have to get past Basle in the quarter finals first with the first leg at the Riverside.

In the Champions League 1st knokout round 2nd leg, Inter had some unfinished business with Ajax at the San Siro. The Italians were able to wrap up their place in the quarterfinals with a straightforward 1-0 win, Dejan Stankovic hitting the winner to win the tie 3-2 and face Villarreal(first leg at San Siro).

Back on the English domestic scene, it was Manchester City and West Ham who filled the final two FA Cup quarter final slots through fifth round replays, before City got beaten by the Hammers 2-1 in their quarter final at the City of Manchester stadium. Then Liverpool went on to anhiliate a weakened Birmingham side 7-0 at St Andrews(I would not want to be Steve Bruce right now). Chelsea beat Newcastle 1-0 in a pretty straightforward match at Stamford Bridge while Charlton drew 0-0 with Middlesborough at the Valley. As for the semi final draw...well I can remember a few 'virtual finals' at this stage(the classic being United vs Arsenal back in '99) and in 2006 we have Chelsea vs Liverpool(at Old Trafford) which leaves West Ham to face either Charlton or Middlesborough(at Villa Park). My prediction: An all London final between Chelsea and West Ham with Chelsea ripping the Hammers apart in the final.

North of the border and Aberdeen have surged up to sixth place by blowing apart Livingston 3-0 at Pittodrie. The visitors may have made a decent start to the match but once the Dons turned up the heat with a Russell Anderson opener they never looked like coming back and Steve Lovell made it two before recent midfield signing from Feyenoord Ferne Snoyle opened his Pittodrie account to wrap up the tie.

Elsewhere, Hearts are in trouble. They're still in second place and have Rangers breathing down their necks. Their attempt to get Alex McLeish's crew off their backs at Tynecastle didn't work. Eduardas Jankauskas may have opened the scoring but the Gers then equalised through Thomas Buffel. This leaves Hearts seventeen points behind Celtic and Vladmir Romanov has decided to fire Graham Rix as gaffer and put in fellow Lithuanian Valdas Ivanauskas(a Romanov hirning as coach)in the meantime. Could this be because Ivanauskas may not be so likely to moan when Romanov picks the team? The guy may know what to do with cash but his ego is too big and as a result his interference has been a disaster for the Edinburgh side.

Celtic meanwhile, were in the CIS Insurance Cup final at Hampden Park where they went up against Dunfirmline. Keano may have been dissapointed with the style of his first Cup final north of the border but he certainly couldn't complain about the result with Marciej Zurawski, Shaun Maloney and another ex-United man Dion Dublin hitting the net.

Looks like I'd better end this splurdge

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