WE BLEW IT!

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

Well last season West Ham had an iffy season. They started with Alan Pardew in charge, switched to Kevin Keen on a caretaker basis and then wound up with Alan Curbishley in charge. And still wound up going out of the UEFA Cup early and wrestling with relegation. It was under Curbishley though that they embarrassed United twice, beating us at both Upton Park and Old Trafford. We did a better job against the Hammers in 05/06, when we beat them both at their place and at home.

This time round, West Ham look to be avoiding relegation at least and are one of the teams hanging around the midtable nowheresville with the outside chance of a spot in the UEFA Cup! Still, though memories of last season were fresh in United's minds, a trip to Upton Park shouldn't have been that scary. For United it was Kusczack in goal, with Fletcher and Hargreves in centre mid, Tevez and Saha up front. West Ham were taking their chances on a sole striker.

Well United's defence was nowhere early on and as a result we were lucky not to concede as our goal got battered. To be honest our opener was slightly against the run of play but that was the Hammer defence's problem not ours. In the 14th minute Giggsy was able to just cruise through and set up Ronaldo to stick it into the net. The home side certainly didn't lie down after that goal though and the first half ended as it started but we still had the lead going into half time.

West Ham kept attacking at the start of the second half but our defence still not only held out but were able to launch counter attacks, the Hammers then made a habit of hacking some of our players which eventually resulted in a penalty...pity we missed it! The Hammers kept attacking though and eventually hit paydirt when a 77th minute Mark Noble corner found the head of Anton Ferdinand who claimed family bragging rights with an equaliser! Follow that with an 82nd minute Noble freekick headed in by Matthew Upson and you have the most embarrassing United collapse for a while.

Elsewhere, well Arsenal turned round a half time deficit at Goodison Park spectacularly to win 4-1 despite finishing the game with 10 men, the Gunners only needing to add the finishing touches by that point. Chelsea beat Newcastle 2-1 at Stamford Bridge with the Blues needing a late winner to seal the three points. That leaves United falling back down to 2nd in the Premiership, now two points behind leaders Arsenal but still four points ahead of third place Chelsea and a detour through the Champions League preliminaries.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced St Mirren at St Mirren Park in the SPL. The Dons weren't up to much in the early stages of the match and that left the home side free to attack though they kept blowing their chances. The Dons defence emerged with credit from the first half and the second half started with a suspicion that this was going to turn into a "nae goals nae fitba" affair. St Mirren had the odd chance but it was a defensive blunder at the other end that proved decisive, allowing Lovell to hit the winner for the Dons.

Elsewhere, Hibs lost 2-1 to Rangers at Easter Road with the Gers still desperately trying to stop Celtic from running away with the title while Falkirk beat Hearts 2-1 at the Falkirk Stadium. Motherwell beat Dundee United in what was an amazing encounter at Fir Park that finished 5-3 in the home side's favour. Those results allow the Dons to move up to 5th place in the SPL, six points behind 3rd placed Motherwell and a garunteed UEFA Cup spot though only one point ahead of 7th placed Falkirk and the bottom half of the table.

Well, that's 2007 over as far as football's concerned.

Click here to visit the football archive

Comments get emailed here

Click here to return to sports homepage

Click here to return to Matt G's homepage