Friday Evening
I’m on a Grand Central train pulling out of Hartlepool on the way back to the homelands for nine days rest and recreation. Man United are considered to be having a bit of a wobble at the moment so God knows how we should describe our own recent form. Ferdinand is out and our own ex-favourite Johnny Evans is doubtful but does it really make any difference considering the resources that they can call on? I’m not expecting anything out of tomorrow’s match except a bit of fresh air and a good-hiding before we get down to some serious fare against Hull next week. A draw would be cause for great celebration.

The Match
Well, this was no disgrace and the loud applause at the end of the game told the whole story i.e. we’d lost, as most of us expected to do, but the spirit of the side coupled with a distinct improvement on recent performances had given us heart that we can survive. When you see subs like Ronaldo coming on, it makes the hearts of most fans sink and it must be the same for the opposition but we never let up today. I was sitting way back in the East Stand almost on the goal-line we were attacking in the first-half and the atmosphere was positive from the start and didn’t falter that much throughout. As has been demonstrated recently United can get rattled when teams attack them and we had them worried a number of times today. As Corporal Jones in ‘Dad’s Army’ was wont to say, “They don’t like it up ‘em.” United were getting huge amounts of space down our left flank and it was by that route that the cross came after twenty minutes or so for Scholes to head them one up. Macheda scored almost immediately after coming on with a quarter of an hour left, thanks to a generous deflection, but in the meantime Kenwyne had equalized following a cross from the left ten minutes after the restart. It took an eternity for the ball to go in and there was an ecstasy of fumbling, as Wilfred Owen once said, before the bloody thing crossed that line. We put together a lot of flowing moves and I’m sure the presence of Reid and Tainio had a lot to do with that but we also displayed on a number of occasions a lack of togetherness and crosses were headed down while nobody was there to get on the end of them. The bloke next to me was fond of the phrase ‘standing there like pints of milk’ and I think that summed up a number of our attacks. I’d been fearing the worst when I heard Davenport was playing but I have to say I thought he had a good debut. When McShane came on to replace him with around twenty minutes left, the guy behind me was aghast but fair dues to Paul, he won his first challenge and did nothing wrong for the rest of the game. It couldn’t have been easy for him to make a comeback against such opposition. Neville was rightly yellow-carded for diving in our box and was booed thereafter by sections of the crowd while the United chants about Keano were met with polite applause by our lot. Speaking of applause, a lot of our fans applauded Rooney when he came across to take a corner and there was a lot of praise for their players from a number of folks near me. Johnny Evans quite rightly received a good ovation when his name was announced.

Other results didn’t go too badly for us all in all with Hull and Blackburn losing, the latter by four goals, while as I type this in the Chesters Newcastle are still one down to Sunderland old boys club, Stoke City. Shite, they’ve just equalized but still, a draw isn’t that bad for us. I don’t know about you but I think we’ll beat Hull in next week’s must-win match but it’s going to be the usual white-knuckle stuff. Happy Easter.

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