I left Old Trafford today without feeling like we'd lost. Sure, we were the victims of yet another ****ing awful refereeing decision that meant the game was gone inside 10 mins, but for the heart and grit we showed for the rest of the game, it meant I left at full time with my head held high. Kenny 9 - kept us in the game for long stretches, and was one of his best performances seen to date. Really controlled his box for the first time in a long time. Onuoha 7 - good performance and kept Valencia/Young quite for long periods of the game. Most importantly however, he prevented in tandem with Mackie, evra being able to get forward and create the overlap. Ferdinand 7 - kept Rooney in check however was turned and caught out of place on occasion. One of his best performances though in a QPR shirt. Hill 8 - somehow managed to keep pace with Wellbeck and also was strong at the back and looked calm when put under pressure. The fact we havent given him a new contract yet is nothing sort of outrage as he has been arguably our best defender this year Taiwo 7 - gets better at the back with every game. Not as dominant as last week but a good performance none the less. Diakite 8 - could possibly be our best buy of the season. Strong in the middle, good at carrying the ball forwards, paired with Faurlin next year, we could have one of the best central midfield pairings irregardless of division. Derry 7 - unsurprising to the club have already appealed one of the worst decisions we've seen this year. However the way he walked off the field (to a chorus of Shaun Derry my lord) , knowing full well the ref had made a mistake without complaining made me respect him even more. If young had shown a 1/1000th of the sportsmanship, we wouldnt have needed that situation Taarabt 7 - frustrated by United closing him down and also by Bothroyd's inability to play football, he often had to look far out for Mackie or backwards for support. However showed flashes again of brilliance and was taken off early to preserve him for the next game against Swansea. Most importantly though he showed a willingness to defend and infact was often calling on his team mates to come further back and defend with him. Buzsaky 6 - put under pressure by United for lots of the game and required to spend most of the time defending but when going forward often could play the final ball Bothroyd 5 - playing as a hold up man, didnt really win much in the air which was to be expected however he has absolutely no chemistry with either Mackie or Taarabt and often was in the wrong place when attacking. Mackie 7 - typical Mackie performance, run lots at the defenders and put them under pressure however had no support so often couldnt pass the final ball or get a shot away himself. When defending though he continually closed down and prevented the overlap by Evra or Valencia Subs: SWP 5 - didnt do much as per usual, ran around with no real direction and trod on the ball a couple of times. Smith 6 - didnt get much of the ball however took over Taarabt's role as a defender admirably Campbell 6 - a definite upgrade on Bothroyd but didnt really see the ball at all Ref: Mason 1 - aside from the obvious bad call, a call he then compounded by sending off Derry it was a reasonably inept game from him and his linesmen. Regularly missing offside, awarding free kicks anytime a united player fell over or dived and also failed to book Rafeal until the 70th minute inspite of him coming through late with several challenges and once even missing the ball and kicking the player. United fans/ground 5- 3/4 of the ground were completely silent but those to my right, we actually reasonably noisy and had some good banter with them (they often joined in with songs like 'we'll race you back to london' or 'we support our local team') and especially with the one that looked like Noel Gallagher. However the fact that so many left by 85 mins when their team were 2-0 up at home against a 10 men bottom 5 team is inexcusable. Who knows maybe they had a connection back to London from Manchester Victoria to catch. The only real dissapointing thing about Old Trafford as a stadium was the Stasi-like stewards at the turnstile to get in. Never before have I seen such a basic lack of respect shown by stewards at a football match. They were on a level with the preston stewards who regularly go rushing into the crowd like SS commandos, purely to force fans to sit down. QPR fans 10 - we sang the whole way through and singing Shaun derry my lord after his red card was especially good. Well done as well to vast majority who stayed all the way to end to applaud both sets of players of the pitch.
Thanks for the write up superdoopahoopsa. What could have been a great day out ruined by a w***** of a ref and Bolton fan. But as you say plenty of positives to take from it, now bring on another noisy Loftus Road under the floodlights against the Swans, YOU R'S!
Lee Mason and his sidekicks were the worst referee trio i have seen whole season. They were even worse than "the three blind men" who were referees at the bolton match. Derry's sent off ,penaltykick and offside were bad enough but that rafael avoid his yellow card until 70 minute as he should be sent off at least twice. Un***inbelieveble........
Good stuff, Supes. I thought Mackie looked very good again and certainly not out of place in this league. I only wished that he'd keep going when he had the ball, as I think he frightened the life out of Evra. There were a few times when he used his strength to win the ball and break away from his marker before setting off on a run towards goal, only to then check and look for a square or backwards pass. Somebody said on another thread that perhaps the pitch wasn't very good as the a lot of passes were going short, and this seemed the case with a lot of Mackie's square balls. I just wanted him to plough on and get in the penalty area instead.
Cheers supa. You fans at the ground were fantastic....could hear you all game and you spectacularly out-sung the Utd fans!! Brilliant from all you guys. Agree with most of your comments although I thought Onouha could have been better in possession and maybe Paddy should have stopped the scholes shot, although he did very well apart from that!! Bothroyd and Smith look championship players at best to me!
Spot on in every way. Certainly left OT feeling positive. My one gripe (well apart from the obvious two or three concerning refereeing standards, big name forwards and players without an ounce of moral integrity etc) was that we looked set up to hold on and defend at all costs even before Derry's departure. However, I do see the bigger picture which I believe was Sparky's intention all along. We play again in three days time and then again three days later. Those are much bigger games for our season. That for me explains the substitutions so that our key players can in one case stay fresh for the Swans and in the other stay on the pitch without another disciplinary blemish. Well done to the players and well done to all our fans who attended. Now we need some good ideas about what we are going to do to get a groundswell of opinion from fans of all colours about how we improve standards of refereeing and standards of sportsmanship.
Am I the only one who thought Rooney should have been sent off for the tackle early on? He should've at least got a yellow.
Red would have been harsh imo...but I wonder what would have happened if it had been Diakite on Rooney?!! Should definitely have been a yellow!
Andy Townsend in the studio said it was "borderline red", and that you'd struggle to find a clearer yellow than that.
Left old trafford feeling well pissed off with the officials. they wasted my money in terms of watching a competitive match!!. Never a penalty and never a sending off!. Referees could award a penalty or free kick from every corner with the amount of pulling and shoving going on! It seems to be all about the man in the middle nowadays. we defended superbly and i thought every player gave his all. Penny and Ferdinand get a special mention in my book and i don't agree with awarding bothroyd a 5. He did what he could and worked very hard for the team. its difficult enough up front on your own with 11 players never mind 10.
Fair enough Bob. What is going on with the standard of officials? Don't know if you've seen a replay of the offside, but it was the clearest, simplest decision mate. Really unbelievable that he couldn't see that as offside!!
Saw it over and over again Col. had the benefit of being in a box with tv!! Along with a couple of man utd associates. He was so quick to award both penalty and card!. It enraged me no end!!. I didn't expect to win or even draw if im honest but to be cheated in that manner was terrible and also knowing if it had been at the other end nothing would have been awarded. like you said Col, i am proud of our players today and i note somewhere that they said derry was slow to react to youngs movement but the fact is he was offside anyway so his positioning and reaction time was understandable.
Indeed! Still, hopefully the sense of of injustice will fire us on Wed!! Minimum of 4 points needed from the next two!!
According to the Premier League website referee's are picked for each game based on a number of criteria. Where they live, where they are born and who they support stops them from refereeing teams that come within that criteria. So how the holy fu(k can a man born 15 miles from Old Trafford be allowed to referee a game between Manchester United and a team from London????? I mean, can you imagine a ref born in Slough being given a game between us and United? Let's just hope we get Halsey at the scum, I know he's a Rangers fan. I'm really starting to believe that the Premier League and FA have got together to ensure we go down because of the court case last year.
Most interesting thing to come out of today will be if the FA finally rescind a red card and lose their 100% conviction rate. Realistically they have to as even if they want to argue that contact was sufficient to warrant a red, the fact that he was offside nullifies it. If they don't rescind it, it will be certainly interesting to see the consequences. Could even see a lawsuit or two considering the amount of effort they went to, to get Rooney's ban (that should have been longer than 3 games in my opinion) reduced for the Euro's
how many points have refs got to give man u before the stench suffocates the game. hope the young sh1t never hurts himself failing over as he's been paired with tom daley for the olympics.
