Before
It’s 7.15 a.m. and in a few hours I’ll be driving down to Alicante Airport for the flight home. I don’t know if I’ll be able to catch the match on the T.V. but if it can be caught, I’ll catch it. Man U have won eight in a row and of course nobody gives us a cat in hell’s chance of getting a result today so we’ve got nothing to lose, except our goal-difference that is. Looking at their back four against Wolfsburg the other night, they didn’t look that secure in the opening stages and clearly, as Corporal Jones always says, they don’t like it up ‘em so I think our only chance of a shock is to go hell for leather from the start and if we manage to get a goal, not to try to sit back on it otherwise we’ll lose heavily. With Bent and Jones in great form we’ve got the men to do early damage and with our much improved midfield we can battle it out. We didn’t do badly last time round and their stoppage-time winner was a real sickener but I’m sure we’ll concede a goal today. It looks like Bardo will be up against Giggs; well, good luck son, is all I can say there. I think I recall Wigan under Steve Bruce getting a draw at Old Trafford last season and another draw today would be a great result.

After
To cut a long story short I didn’t get to see the game but I managed to get tuned into Radio Five Live mid-way through the first-half as I sat on the no. 52 bus from Victoria to Ladbroke Grove. Fortunately I’d been given a small transistor radio in Spain and I sat with it glued to my ear in a very fab Sixties style. I was delighted to hear that we were one-up through Bent and the superlatives about us coming out of Alan Green were unlimited. It soon dawned on me that United were playing a much-changed side, with no Giggs for a start, while we were playing a strong side, surprisingly including Ferdinand but fair dos to him, he was getting lots of praise too. I got home just before they equalized with what sounded like a spectacular effort from Berbatov but as I busied myself unpacking and checking mail etc in an effort to run down the clock we went 2-1 up through Kenwyne following yet more great work by Reid and some beneficial dithering by Foster in goal. I felt like Muttley floating on a little cloud after he’d got another medal as the commentary flowed on like real fantasy football. In the end I was disappointed of course that we didn’t win and Richo getting himself needlessly sent-off five minutes from the end must’ve contributed to them equalizing in injury-time. Still, at the end of the day a draw away against Man U, with ten men for best part of ten minutes, is something to be very proud of. Also it wasn’t just the result but the great way we played that must give all of us the feeling that finally we’ve turned the corner. Anyway, I’m buzzing and I think a bit of that holiday booze is about to be opened.

ALS Books click here