HUNGRY ROONEY FEASTS ON BOLTON

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

Bolton are always known for giving the big sides a headache and this season, they've caused particular trouble, standing in third in the Premiership and only two points behind us. In other words, lose at the Reebok Stadium and we could not only fall from the top of the League but outside the top two. So in a complete overhaul of the side that faced Crewe midweek it was Van de Saar back in goal, Gary at right back and captain, Rio and Vidic in central defence, Evra at left back, Ronaldo at right mid, Carrick and Scholes in centre mid, Giggsy at left mid and Rooney and Saha up front.

United's first team certainly had no intention of losing and the Bolton defence soon knew that he was going to have a busy afternoon. And in the 10th minute Carrick lobbed the Bolton defence to find Wayne who slammed it into the left of the Bolton goalie to end his drought. And if anyone doubted that England's deadliest assasin had found his shooting boots again, he doubled United's score in the 16th minute after a messed up Bolton clearance gave him the ball on the right hand side of the box. Credit to Bolton they got the act together to some extent afterwards but it already looked too late!

The home side did have the first serious attack of the second half which made things look like the match was going to end looking like an even contest and and Ivan Campo's hot shot showed that the home side were still alive. Could Bolton have gotten a result had the Spaniard hit the net? Don't know, don't care because in the 82nd minute Saha surged forward, could gave lobbed the goalie but instead gave the ball to Ronaldo who stood in front of an empty goal. Not long afterward, Fletcher came on for Giggsy and the Scotsman set up Rooney to comlete his hat-trick and United's dominance in the 89th. In short, it was the sort of performance that made you know this was United's title.

Though credit where credit's due, Chelsea are still on our heels. Their latest win saw them beat Sheffield United 2-0 at Bramall Lane with goals from Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack taking care of the Blades. That leaves United and the Blues still level on points at the top of the Premiership table but United have a +6 goal difference advantage which definately leaves the title out of Chelsea's hands for the time being, though the Cocky One probably still fancies his chances.

North of the border Aberdeen faced Hibs at Pittodrie in the SPL with both sides looking for a UEFA Cup spot. The Dons looked nervy to start with and Hibs were not only the stronger side in the first half but Christoper Killen oipened the scoring early on in the second half. This forced the Dons into form though and Lee Miller equalised and the Reds slowly turned up the heat, resulting in Scott Severin hitting a scorcher of a winner in injury time.

With Inverness CT only able to draw 1-1 with St Mirren and Kilmarnock losing 2-1 to Celtic, that did surge the Dons back up to fourth and a UEFA Cup spot though they are still level on points with fifth placed Caley and only have a +1 goal difference advantage. They're only three points behind Hearts for a Champions League spot though with the self-destructing Edinburgh side only drawing 1-1 with Dunfirmline at Tynecastle, leaving them ten points adrfft of Celtic at the top of the table.

And going back south of the border and down a few levels, I had probably the most embarrassing moment in Exeter so far last week when I started chatting to two footballers before getting my haircut who far from being members of some small amateur team(who had somehow got far enough in the FA Cup to be playing AFC Wimbledon that weekend), they turned out to be Exeter City defenders Chris Todd and Billy Jones! Anyway, they did manage to beat their Ryman League Premier division opposition 2-1 at St James's Park to reach the competition proper after missing out last year. The 1st round opponents are L2 Stockport County at St James's Park. Of course I'm not going to forget my old local team either and Brentford's first FA Cup task is to beat L1 relegation dogfight rivals Doncaster at Griffin Park.

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