[Archived] Man Utd Home

[chris]

Just watched the highlights on Match Of The Day... Once again, robbed. Blatant handball and the extra minute. Although, saying that, Johansson handled in the area - it would have been a very harsh penalty, but arguably a penalty none-the-less. Amoruso's red card looked fairly legit; can't complain there really.

Friedel looked superb; couldn't say much for the other players as all the clips were Manchester United dominated...

We can take heart from the point and, with Newcastle leaking goals without a solid defence, we can hopefully take something from there too.

I can get to sleep reasonably happy tonight.

but maybe if we were creating 10,000 chances then we might have got a lucky break, think about playing Palace for example and having chance after chance and then finally getting a break at the end, we would consider it justice.

[Manchester Blue]

You can call it what you want but palming it across to your other striker during the minute the ref has added on at the insistence of RFW isn't what I'd called justice.

[Hasta]

think about playing Palace for example and having chance after chance and then finally getting a break at the end, we would consider it justice.

No we wouldn't , we would consider it very lucky

[ready steady]

Positive's , brad's performance , dickov's work rate and pedersen did ok considering it was his first game , he showed some signs of promise and will improve the side.

Negative's , our luck with refferee's , it's got to balance out sometime , the attendance with 8000+ utd fans , we had less than 18000 roverites for our biggest game of the season , could the junior footy tournament at pleasington have played a part or are people turning their back after just 4 games?

[colin]

Just trying to make sense of today's game.

On the up side....

(1) Brad Friedel..is he brilliant or what?

(2) Bert Emerton..has he ever played so well for us? He was outstanding today, His run and cross for Pederson to miss was brilliant and he really worked his socks off. Nice one Bert.

(3) The team spirit and committment when we went down to 10 men

(4) If The Scum had scored after 15 minutes and we had equalised after 94 minutes then we would all be happy as Larry.

(5) The Scum could only score due to a blatent handball. The ref missed it.

(6) The butter pies at Kwik Save have got even better. mmmmmm tasty.

(7) I've lost it....

(8) It did cross my mind that Abbey would be watching the match on his hols surrounded by Scum Fans......

[Paul]

..............are people turning their back after just 4 games?............

The attendance is a legacy of last season, simply that. It takes a few really crap performabces to lose a crowd, it takes months and months to get them back again.

[Nate]

..............are people turning their back after just 4 games?............

The attendance is a legacy of last season, simply that. It takes a few really crap performabces to lose a crowd, it takes months and months to get them back again.

Its annoying to me as they have the chance too see Rovers play all the time. I don't have that luxury.

[Rovermatt]

There were 3 minutes on the board, before RFW stuck his orr in. F***ing typical...

And as for Amoruso, the man is liability.

Edited August 29, 2004 by Rovermatt

[Flopsy]

Guardian Website has this match report (i think the media [well at least the Gruniad] have turned against Man U )

[thenodrog]

Off the top of my head - Berg, Amo (obviously), Neil? Flitcroft?

short. When we drew 2-2 with em

Sherwood at O.T.

So up to now its Berg, Amo, Neil, Flitcroft, Short and Sherwood. I also have it in my head that Sutton got potted at OT too. I rem that there was also a sending off for both sides at Ewood circa 96/7 but I cannot rem who the players were. If that's the case then surely 8 sendings off for one team in approx 20 games against just 1 by the other team is surely an indication that something is very wrong with the officiating.

Maybe a proper Statto would be good enough to research the number of cautions also.

The reason I am so suspicious is the absolutely scandalous situation where a manager can bully a fourth official into adding on fictional overtime! Surely 'something is rotton in the Kingdom' of the FA? The matter should really be allocated top priority at Lancaster Gate........unless they are ###### scared of upsetting the RFW again! I notice that the incriminating evidence of 3 mins on the board being changed to 4 that was clearly shown by the MOTD cameras had been edited out by Sun morning. Ferguson refusing to be interviewed by the Beeb after the game (presumably after he was notified that he would be questioned about the incident) spoke absolute volumes.

I hate cheating! We should definitely not let this drop and should bombard the media/ FA / other clubs etc until there is an enquiry. (any relevent email addresses gratefully recieved) Problem is that if there is any punishment it will be against MU and the 4th official and will not reimburse us for the lost points.

[Simon Says]

Don't call me Stato Theno but since the Premiership we have played United 21 times. In those games we have received 38 yellow cards and 5 red. United on the other hand have 29 yellows and 1 red. (Keane sent off at Ewood by one of the better refs David Elleray)

[thenodrog]

Just watched the highlights on Match Of The Day... Once again, robbed. Blatant handball and the extra minute. Although, saying that, Johansson handled in the area - it would have been a very harsh penalty, but arguably a penalty none-the-less.

Yes but the significant point about the penalty box incidents is

10) Handles the ball deliberately

If any of these offences are committed by a player inside their own penalty area then it's a penalty.

I think the word 'deliberately' exhonerates Nils as he was cleary looking the other way when the ball hit his hand as opposed to Saha whose handball action was definitely intentional. This is similar to the Pen give against Neil at Chelsea last season, sure his arms were up but he also was looking away when the ball made contact with his hand. I do wonder what is going on in referees heads when they make these decisions.

Video evidence viewed by a 4th official for adjudication on such incidents is surely a must (especially for the smaller clubs like ourselves) and would definitely have left us with 2 more points and would also have seen Sorrenson sent off at Villa Park.

[Ricky]

MOTD made a point of showing the 3 minute fiasco. Souness was told 3 minutes, the assistant put 3 minutes on the board, Ferguson cmplained and they changed it to 4 minutes. Whats that all about???

Also interesting that MOTD didn't bother showing Dickov getting in the way of Howards clearence (I certainly would have thought that should be a highlight). They also didn't bother showing Pedersons chance in the second half, although they obviously felt it was noteworthy as Hansen mentioned it after the highlights.

Just a shame Friedel was appealing for the handball instead of setting himself for the shot, he would have saved it as it went straight between his hands. I'm not blaming him for us being robbed of the points, the blame for that lies purely with the match officials (again!!)

[Pål Pot]

Still gutted about mr. Wiley's refereing. He was so biased even a friend of mine who supports no team didn't fail to notice it. Apart from the obvious handball, the tackle on Dickov just before Amo's sending off (which I think was a correct decision) and ManU players not receiving yellow cards, one thing struck to me time after time. ManU freekicks. They were allowed to deliver a freekick on a moving ball more than one occasion. Also mr. Wiley seems to give permission to deliver the freekick but not letting our players know it.

Yesterday mr. Wiley was a total disgrace to his hobby and a caricature of integrity. And probably he won't know it himself.

What a fabulous match anyway. Many great performances by our players (Yorke excluded). Satisfied with point as ManU had so many clear goalscoring opportunies.

I hope FA will review mr. Wiley's totally biased refereing and the actions of both Ferguson and fourth official. And after that condemn them, if not straight to hell, at least to lower division for unforeseeable time.

[Sydney Rovers]

Guardian Website has this match report (i think the media [well at least the Gruniad] have turned against Man U )

Just look at this quote from that report, and people wonder why he's called the Rat Faced Whinger.

'I'm sure Graeme isn't happy with some of the decisions, but he should be happy with a point from a game we dominated,' Sir Alex Ferguson said. 'We would have won but for a combination of bad misses and fantastic goalkeeping.'

[thenodrog]

This is why I hate the RFW so much........From the Guardian report

"Ferguson was less reliable in describing Paul Dickov's opener as a scrappy goal from a throw-in and Blackburn's only attempt of the afternoon."

What a bloody gobshite he is isn't he? That was an excellent piece of finishing by Dickov so why can he not admit it? What has he got to gain by being so churlish.

[Rovermatt]

Newsflash: Alex Ferguson is bitter, obnoxious old git.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

The biggest and best supported club in the worlds supporters are having a dig again at our support ...................

http://boards.footymad.net/mboard/load.php...&mid=2143908852

[grizfoot]

Still in a state of shock really.

Well i could see it coming though everyone knows that refs favour top sides and it showed yesterday, f**kin Ferguson complains they get an extra minute in the end that proved costly.

And to make it even worse there goal involved an handball and Brad was to busy trying to tell the ref that it was handball and therefore but him off when the shot came in.

so all i can say is YOU CHEATING SCUM !!!!

[JonnyH]

No wonder he was so good yesterday.

Brad

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Pederson had a great Debut.

Your definition of "Great" is obviously different to mine....

I thought he was average at best. Indeed, I can't recall him once getting to the byline and putting a decent cross in.

From the Pederson thread:

It's a big advantage that he can use both his lefs.

He may have two "lefs" - but sadly he didn't use his head at times.

He should have made it 2-0 to wrap the game up. That was the defining moment of the game, when in one of our rare counter-attacks, Emerton squared the ball to Pederson.

He had the time and space to control it, move forward and calmly sidefoot the ball past Tim Howard, but failed to do so. Whether it was nerves, inexperience or stupidity, I'm not sure.

Earlier, his acrobatic bicycle kick may have raised a few cheers, but ultimately the showboating resulted in giving possession away to United.

Another comment on the Pederson thread perhaps best sums up the situation:

Everything is faster, and he needs time to adjust

Correct.

Let's hope he can improve. At the moment, this young man looks as if he has a little bit to learn.

Playing United at a frenetic pace is altogether different to playing against SK Brann or FK Viking in the Norwegian League.

The equaliser was sickening but not a surprise to me. In the final minutes we didn't get tight enough or keep hold of the ball.

Smith's goal obviously shouldn't have been allowed, but why do our players seem incapable of keeping hold of the ball near the opposition corner flag for the final couple of minutes?

It was the same against the Saints. The ref robbed us there as well, but the ball shouldn't have been near our goal in the first place.

A final moan about yesterday - What the hell was Lucas Neill doing when he nearly put the ball into the back of the net with a header?

Sorry for being Mr Grumpy - United scoring in the last minute tends to have that effect on me...

Edited August 29, 2004 by Anti Euro Smiths Fan

[92er]

I'm sure that every poster will still be upset by the refereeing decision that robbed us of 2 more points yesterday.

What I'm a bit surprised about is that people have not concentrated more on the quality of our display.

We had 4 shots on target-they had 15.

We had 4 shots off target-they had 9.

We had 4 corners-they had 14.

I could symphasise with Souness being reluctant to play Gray, who has brought a great deal of stability to the defense and did a lot of covering for Amoruso last year, but who has struggled against specialist wingers.I'm just not convinced that Matteo, with lack of his pace,is the answer.

In the second half, when the game got stretched, we very rarely broke with pace. I'm not convinced that Tugay and Ferguson can play effectively together. Tugay needs to play behind the strikers, I'm not sure of Ferguson's best position. I personally think there is a big question mark about what I guess is our record signing, but maybe he will come good by October.as Souness said, after 12 games.

As I said, on the Emerton posting, despite playing hist best home game since he joined us ,I still think there is also a huge question about whether he will make it at Premiership level.

Dickov scored an excellent poacher's goal and worked hard. But he's no Andy Cole and Stead, who is looking a little lost this year, needs a partner who can replicate Cole's contribution from last year.

So lady luck came into it again and intervened on our opponent's behalf.

However, I can't remember a meaningful save that Howard had to make, nor did I see the kind of quality that is going to get us away from the bottom.

[Flopsy]

Newsflash: Alex Ferguson is bitter, obnoxious old git.

Hardly a news flash, I ve known that for ages

[Scotty]

Positives:

- We played a balanced team with everyone in their correct positions (apart from Matteo).

- Probably as a result we looked much more of a threat going forward than we have done so far this season.

- I didn't rate Dickov before he came, and I'm still not totally convinced, but he's starting to win me over. He played well yesterday.

- Emerton actually looked like the class winger we thought we'd bought last summer.

- Friedel was simply outstanding.

Negatives:

- I think playing Ferguson and Tugay together makes our midfield too lightweight. We were up against a relatively lightweight United midfield yesterday but they still controlled things for large parts of the game.

- We look very dodgy at the back against pace. Both Short and Amoruso are superb against physical centre forwards (like Smith) but looked dodgy as hell when Saha came on.

- Pedersen looked lost for most of the game. He'll improve but he'll have to. He really should have scored.

- Where was Gray?

- The manager should have had the balls to take Yorke off when Amoruso was sent off. Dickov would have worked United's defence far harder than Yorke did in the last 20 minutes.

- The referee was a clown throughout.

We were robbed at the end but it shouldn't disguise the fact that United were far better than us and, but for a remarkable game by Friedel and some poor finishing, would have won comfortably. We did, however, look better than in previous games and we won't play teams with the quality United have every week.

[tchocky]

I blame souey. Souness OUT. We havent got 1 point after 5 games now- scandalous!

wtf are you on?

We have 2pts out of 4 games

Voooooooommmmmmmmm!