RESERVES PLUNDER BARNET BUT PREMIERSHIP SQUAD BLOWS CHANCE TO TAKE SECOND

 

Well, the game was at Old Trafford and the oppisition was Martin Jol's on form Spurs side, on form as in second place. Tottenham were at OT for the taking, a chance to smother what title ambitions they might have. A team like the Red Devils are supposed to take these oppitunities and put the oppisition away.

Well, Mikael Silvestre opened the scoring in the 7th minute, so far so good, scratch that, we were doing pretty solidly for the first part of the second half...and then Jermaine Jenas slams in a free kick in the 72nd. Could a total of five United forwards hit the net in the last 20 minutes? No they could not. Bottom line by my reckoning is that we're still hurt by injuries but that's a pretty hopeless excuse for currently being in fifth place at the end of October. I still refuse to believe my side are out of the title race though but we will be if more results like this happen.

So fast forward to Wednesday and it was the reserves' turn to put on a show in the Carling Cup as per usual. THe likes of Barnet can usually be cruised over at Old Trafford even without a picky ref red-carding the Barnet goalie for picking up the ball one milimetre out of his area, still the reserves did manage to run rampant after that, Miller, Richardson, Rossi(an Italian-American not straight Italian) and Sylvain Ebanks-Blake hitting the net.

Elsewhere in the 3rd round, two more results raised eyebrows, the first was Crystal Palace busting the Scousers, the defending champions 2-1 at Selhurst Park and the second...all hail! all hail! The Allstars have fallen, a 1-1 draw allowing Charlton to force Chelsea into a penalty shootout even with the Blues at full strength later on in the match. Looks like spot kicks are one thing that Jose Mourinho can't stay one step ahead of.

It wasn't Chelsea's first exposure to Kryptonite though, with Everton turning the clock back one year to force Chelsea to quit Goodison Park with only one point on the weekend. Results like that confirm that an on-form United could definately overhaul the Mourinho machine, though there is the possibility of a third side becoming players in the title business...and it sure as hell isn't the Sunk Guns(too cocky to hit a penalty straight) or the Scousers. They have England goalie Paul Robinson, they have Edgar Davids in midfield, they have Jermain Defoe up front. Spurs look like they might seriously mean business, and they look a solid bet for a Champions League spot at least.

Now...north of the border, as a black and white TV era copper might say "Ello, ello, ello, what's all this then?". Even when I lived in Scotland, the affairs of Hearts never interested me much but Vladmir Romanov sounds like he ought to be nicked. You hire a good quality manager like George Burley, he takes your team to the top of the League, starts calling you on your using of a decent name in Scottish football as a Russian player depot...and then you fire him. No half decent manager, let alone Bobby Robson, should be interested in those sorts of conditions. In the meantime, the Dons continue to do solidly enough, a 1-0 defeat by Hibs made up for with a 2-0 win over Dundee United.

Till the weekend!

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