Manchester United Preview

[rover6]

Hughes's comments from that article............

"I'm sure the referee will say, By the letter of the law, it was a bookable offence'. "But there were 75,000 people in the stadium and I'm sure they were all looking forward to a really competitive second half.

"But as soon as he deems the challenge worthy of a second yellow card, he has to send him off, and the game is poorer because of that because, as a contest, it was over."

This is a point that I have made many times! The spectators on the ground, the TV audience and the billion or so asians that we are told watch MU are being short changed when a team end up a man down! Too many matches are spoiled and prematurely ended by a sending off. The ref was prob sh1tting it that Fergy would see him suspended if he didn't stick to the letter of the law but the authories should and must be stronger than that.

My suggestion for some time now is simply for two more coloured cards to be used by referees. One (black for example) for a 10 min period in a 'sin bin' and another (blue?) to force a compulsory substitution of a player. Either would have been suitable for Dunny whilst red cards could properly be reserved for the likes of the challenge at Parkhead the other night.

I'd be amazed if Dunny was reprimanded or fined by the club for being shown red, but a proper red card offence should and would deserve internal club disciplinary measures. The Benfica player knew he would be sent off for what he did and with the tie at just 1-0 it was an act of stupidity that damaged his own clubs prospects.

Would you or Hughes have been arguing this had a Man U player been sent of in similar circumstances. Nope. The referee has no obligation to weigh his decisions with the need to keep the game competitive - he has to officiate by the rules.

[Hasta]

10. Dodgy equaliser away at OT after Schmeical fouling Hendry in the box after going up for a corner.

Which wasn't a corner.

Mark Hughes kicking Le Saux up the backside in our 2-0 win in 1994.

Rover6 - The only reason Dunn got his first booking was because a few harder tackles had gone in earlier which the ref had just given a foul for. If I watched that game again I could find several challenges that should have been a booking if Dunns was. Just before that I'm sure Nelson hacked through the back of Ronaldo giving away a free kick. It looked that bad on the replay that I presumed he'd been booked. When he did get booked later in the game I was amazed that he wasn't walking. You should book someone on the severity or the regularity of their fouls - not to make up for what has gone on before.

Poor poor reffing.

I also agree with Drog with regards to some of the soft dismissals we have seen at Ewood. I did make the point when Savage ridiculously got dismissed a while ago that I had paid £20 odd pound to watch a game of football which was ruined from my point of view by a ref who could not interpret the rules. Maybe a sin bin for Dunn-style bookings is the answer.

[Alan75]

Did rover6 put the poll options up? I know we played 35 mins with ten men but...

Maybe he/she couldnt spell Axe (Aaron Mokoena)

[Hughesy]

£40 a ticket, for the ref to spoil it as usual! Thats the reason I didnt go! As my grandad always says 'The big clubs are difficult to beat, but its even harder when the ref is always on their side'

[savage8]

Which wasn't a corner.

Mark Hughes kicking Le Saux up the backside in our 2-0 win in 1994.

Rover6 - The only reason Dunn got his first booking was because a few harder tackles had gone in earlier which the ref had just given a foul for. If I watched that game again I could find several challenges that should have been a booking if Dunns was. Just before that I'm sure Nelson hacked through the back of Ronaldo giving away a free kick. It looked that bad on the replay that I presumed he'd been booked. When he did get booked later in the game I was amazed that he wasn't walking. You should book someone on the severity or the regularity of their fouls - not to make up for what has gone on before.

Poor poor reffing.

I also agree with Drog with regards to some of the soft dismissals we have seen at Ewood. I did make the point when Savage ridiculously got dismissed a while ago that I had paid £20 odd pound to watch a game of football which was ruined from my point of view by a ref who could not interpret the rules. Maybe a sin bin for Dunn-style bookings is the answer.

That Savage red was one of the most farcical dismissals i've ever seen. Week in week out I see free kicks given for hand balls many many many times worse than Sav's, and the players are not shown cards. Every time I see a handball given on TV, I think back to that game. Poor Sav

[Ozz]

I sat with the United fans as I was given the lend of a season ticket for free (Not paying £39). I thought we looked lively and up for it even right up to the last 5 minutes.

A couple of small points. Not a very good place to watch football, I was in the north stand at the corner of the East stand in the quadrant bit and the view is terrible and absolutely no atmosphere. There was a lad sat near me who actually watched the entire game through a set of binoculars!

There were also a number of empty seats up there too, maybe 200 odd-I thought they sold out every week and had 20 year waiting lists for mugs??

And I did not hear one local accent in the ground whatsoever, a lot of London ones though. Bizarre.

As for singing, I only heard Rovers fans sing twice in the whole match-bit disappointing TBH.

[only2garners]

As for singing, I only heard Rovers fans sing twice in the whole match-bit disappointing TBH.

Must be something to do with acoustics then because there was singing pretty much all the way through the match. Wasn't extraordinarily loud but it was constant and its not as if there was a lot of competition from the other 73,000 in there.

[speeeeeeedie]

We were beaten away from home by a better team. However the goals they scored were down to horrible mistakes from us. The cameras focused on Hughes just before HT, all he kept saying was "laughable". Mokoena decided not to mark Ronaldo, something he also did 5 minutes earlier when Bentley cleared off the line. Then Emerton nods one to Saha for them to clean up. We looked lively until the goals, and as soon as Dunn went off it was over, but we battled and didn't not cave; so credit is due. No one was outstanding but we are looking good.

Both Dunn's cards were harsh. I think he got his first as he was the latest man to foul a Utd player. We'd had 4 or 5 fouls previously that weren't booking worthy but were niggly. The ref had enough and Dunn got it. Tevez did what all good foreigners do; as soon as he felt pressure he grabbed hold and dropped like a stone. The second yellow was a silly tackle, he was never getting the ball as he came from the wrong side, but a booking for it was iffy.

I have to say that United are a very good team, their movement is fantastic, and are solid at the back but when you have the 11 on the pitch costing upward of £100million then bringing on £30million worth of substitutes, they should be. Nelsen's booking for whacking Giggs was priceless. Giggs looked like he was waltzing in until he got leathered.

[CAPT KAYOS]

Must be something to do with acoustics then because there was singing pretty much all the way through the match. Wasn't extraordinarily loud but it was constant and its not as if there was a lot of competition from the other 73,000 in there.

Indeed , on Radion Lancs you could only here the Rovers fans even after MU scored

[Cheshireblue]

Does anybody know who was thrown out by the stewards? Who ever it was looked to be incapable of walking from where I was sat.

[Exiled_Rover]

I sat with the United fans as I was given the lend of a season ticket for free (Not paying £39). I thought we looked lively and up for it even right up to the last 5 minutes.

A couple of small points. Not a very good place to watch football, I was in the north stand at the corner of the East stand in the quadrant bit and the view is terrible and absolutely no atmosphere. There was a lad sat near me who actually watched the entire game through a set of binoculars!

There were also a number of empty seats up there too, maybe 200 odd-I thought they sold out every week and had 20 year waiting lists for mugs??

And I did not hear one local accent in the ground whatsoever, a lot of London ones though. Bizarre.

As for singing, I only heard Rovers fans sing twice in the whole match-bit disappointing TBH.

Aye, it's a ###### ground. The midget template they used to design the seating arrangements amuses me no end, especially as I don't have to sit there ever week.

[Lee]

As for singing, I only heard Rovers fans sing twice in the whole match-bit disappointing TBH.

You sure you've not got that the other way around? The only time the home fans chanted was immediately after their goals. The Rovers fans to my right were fantastic and were noisy throughout the game.

[USRoverME]

I know I'm late to the party, but here's my thoughts from watching on the tele:

The first goal was coming, ManU had us under a bit of sustained pressure. It was a bad lapse by Moko, who didn't have a great game, but it was in the flow of the game. The second was a bad cock-up to be caught on the break like that, once they move started it was only ever going to end in either a goal or a shocking miss. Samba and Nelsen looked a poor as I've seen them this season with letting the defense get stretched for those 2 mins of hell, and then periodically in the second half. Having my ManU mate over joining in with the "youre not signing any more" and "easy,easy" chants in my own home was awful, never again is he coming over!

Dunny's first was card very soft, however, he did get a elbow up towards Tevez's face, which didn't help any, but still not a yellow. However, I don't think there's any room to complain about the rest of the cards. Foy had a VERY low card count coming into the game, and yes he reffed the Pompey loss, but look at the match stats, 3 yellows for Pompey, 0 for rovers.... he doesn't deserve the slating he was getting on here (from the pages I skimmed before). The defense was getting caught out slow footed and were dragging people back in threatening spots the entire second half once we went down a man. ManU were on top the entire second half (even before Dunny was gone) making us look slow and tired.

I think Sparky got the subs wrong, again he waited too long, we got tired and sloppy which led to the card count, and he brought on no-one to give us any real help. we are 10-men, we can't get or hold possession, so you change Cruz for Derbs? With only 10 mins left? after we'd been down a man for 20 mins chasing the ball 80% of the time? Shocking.

I think we need the break this weekend. Sparky has used the least players in the PL this year, and I think its telling, also with the midfield injuries, we were looking ragged in the center of the park yesterday.

If I had to pick a MOTM, I'd probably have to pick Benni, actually. When we were bossing the game, he seemed to come deep to help win possession and start a move, then move into the front. His touches were generally class and gave us the distribution and poise in the attack we mustered in the first half, and gave the defense the only breaks they could get in the second when down a man. He also had fewer of the errant touches and miscommunications he has every so often.

[Ozz]

You sure you've not got that the other way around? The only time the home fans chanted was immediately after their goals. The Rovers fans to my right were fantastic and were noisy throughout the game.

It's a big ground, suppose the acoustics aren't very helpful. Plus I was about half a mile away though, I could see the away end at St James park!

[daren]

I'm surprised that Moko was marking Ronaldo for the corner, he doesn't have great height or jump (from what I've seen) and Ronaldo is very strong in the air (something that can be overlooked). Betnley was very unlucky with it - it hit his head, the bar, his head and went in. A bit of luck there could have seen it out. The second goal was poor control leading to Ronaldo skinning Warnock and beating him to the ball by a mile. No blame on Warnock, Ronaldo's FAST.

The first booking was outrageous. The tussle for the the ball was six of one, and only when Dunn got ahead of him did Tevez go down. Dunn had removed his hands previous to that so at the point the foul was called, there was no fouling going on (except for a dive, of course). And this _should_ have been taken into account for the second yellow (which, in isolation, barely qualified for a card at all, but probably did in the picture of the overall game).

Unlucky Samba, that was some shot! Ronaldo had been hacked by Betnley just before that, though. And we had them scrambling the ball off the line later on. Not a bad performance, two mistakes against a team that allows you none at all and missing the rub of the green that could have gotten us something from the game.

[philipl]

One factor which nobody has mentioned yet but in the first 30 minutes we had the much vaunted Man U defence looking distinctly ordinary and shaky at times. Santa Cruz looked stronger than both Vidic and Rio and had MGP turned up properly, I am sure we would have scored.

[MCMC1875]

I sat with the United fans as I was given the lend of a season ticket for free (Not paying £39). I thought we looked lively and up for it even right up to the last 5 minutes.

A couple of small points. Not a very good place to watch football, I was in the north stand at the corner of the East stand in the quadrant bit and the view is terrible and absolutely no atmosphere. There was a lad sat near me who actually watched the entire game through a set of binoculars!

There were also a number of empty seats up there too, maybe 200 odd-I thought they sold out every week and had 20 year waiting lists for mugs??

And I did not hear one local accent in the ground whatsoever, a lot of London ones though. Bizarre.

As for singing, I only heard Rovers fans sing twice in the whole match-bit disappointing TBH.

Did you manage a swift one in the Briton's Protection Oz?

[RoversFanUSA]

Well I for one am disapointed that we lost. Bit United are a very good team and we played strong

Samba had a heck of a shot and as long as we get back to our winning ways I'll be content.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

One more for the list- the Laurent Blanc dive a few years back that won them a Van Nistlehorse penalty. There's got to be more, all I ever ask is for the result to be decided by the players and not the officials, how often does that happen now ?

[Fife Rover]

Does anybody know who was thrown out by the stewards? Who ever it was looked to be incapable of walking from where I was sat.

Was it Jordan?

[Presty On Tour]

ok so we lost, about 99% of the board said we would lose before the game started and now we have theres loads of moaning and astonishment that we lost.

yeah the ref was rubbish, we expected that anyway so no shocks to the system there!!

2 minutes of school boy footy and we were undone. The header by the way should be an own goal. If you look in slow motion, the guy on the line( i forgot who it was) heads the ball against the bar and it bounces back onto his head and into the net in a blink on an eye.

the 2nd goal warnock didn't track back and left ronaldo the freedom to finish.

[Ozz]

Did you manage a swift one in the Briton's Protection Oz?

I had two Lowenbraus after the match Mick. Nectar.

[Mike Graham]

Missed this game due to the fixture change. I read all the match reports and they focus 90% on Utd (a little like the focus on Liverpool the previous week) and 10% on Rovers most of which was about how dirty we were. Thanks goodness I missed it!

[rebelmswar]

2 minutes of school boy footy and we were undone. The header by the way should be an own goal. If you look in slow motion, the guy on the line( i forgot who it was) heads the ball against the bar and it bounces back onto his head and into the net in a blink on an eye.

It was Bentley who did it, I think he tried his best at it though to be fair. Did you see his misspelled name on the back of his shirt Betnley

[Presty On Tour]

10% on Rovers most of which was about how dirty we were. Thanks goodness I missed it!

you would think on a premiership players wages you could afford to have a bath or a shower once in a while!! As for the kit, my mum sends her apologies as the washing machine has been on the blink this week

It was Bentley who did it, I think he tried his best at it though to be fair. Did you see his misspelled name on the back of his shirt Betnley

i think if we had won the game we would of had the points taken off us, a heavy fine and probably a points deduction... playing betnley who is not contracted to the club is a serious offense, we should keep this hush hush!! where was bentley anyway?