NOT DEAD YET

 

(Image taken from BBC)

Well we'd already faced Man City at Old Trafford and they gave us one hell of a rumble - which we won 4-3. Since then well our title challenge looked to be fading while City's board had ditched Sparky in a fit of arrogance before hiring Roberto Mancini before we proceded to do the Blues in during a Carling Cup semi final tie. Now City are serious contenders for the Premiership's 4th Champions League spot and would surely be the last team to give us an easy ride. Still we did need to get out of the City of Manchester Stadium with three points. United went 4-5-1 with Scholes Fletcher and Gibson in centre mid with Giggsy at left mid.

Well both sides were certainly fired up at the start of the match but it took a while for either side to really have the edge. United fans would have been nervous when Carlos Tevez lined up a free kick but the former United assasin sent it wide. Overall, it was United that were proving thselves the stronger of the two teams in theory - that is - if they could hit the net. The amount of chances we managed to blow even with a relatively strong lineup was worrying. Ex-City player and chairman Franny Lee had to admit that the Reds were the better team in the first half but the fact is, the scores were still level. It's this sort of form that makes me nervous about our title chances.

The second half looked to be more of the same with City looking increasingly capable of soaking us up even though they still didn't have many opportunities themselves. Fresh legs were called for and eventually appeared, first with a midfield rejig then on came a fresh assasin. Around about this time in the match though City started to turn things up a bit, could have had a penalty and then in the last few minutes we were very lucky that they didn't hit the net as things got very messy in our box. Injury time came though and our title chances looked more doomed than ever...untill Scholesey headed in an Evra cross. Suddenly we were back in business.

Elsewhere, Chelsea faced Spurs at White Hart Lane. Well it was Spurs that wound up running the show in the first half with Jermain Defoe opening the scoring with a penalty before Gareth Bale grabbed a second goal for the home side. Going down to ten men certainly didn't help the Blue cause and they never really looked likely to run the show in the second half either. They did pull a goal back through Frank Lampard but this was too little too late. That leaves United 2nd in the Premiership, one point behind leaders Chelsea and twelve points ahead of Spurs and a detour through the Champions League preliminaries. However Spurs have a game in hand.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced Falkirk at Pittodrie in the SPL. It didn't take long for the Dons to take the lead, Steve McLean doing the honours. The Dons went on to maintain the edge throught the rest of the first half. So far so good. The Dons dodged a few bullets early on in the second half but it turned out to be nothing that Mark McGhee's crew couldn't handle. For once the Reds held firm and not before time, picked up another three points. That leaves the Dons still 9th in the SPL but at least they're nine points ahead of Falkirk and relegation now which is something resembling decent breathing space. Four games to go.

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