Report: Manchester City 2 – 1 Manchester United
I imagine most Manchester united fans, like me, will be feeling a massive sense of injustice this morning, but should we really be worried by the referee aided decision last night? I’m not so sure.
City played nothing like a side that’s capable of coming to Old Trafford and beating us or even leaving with a draw. They were camped in their own half for much of the game, while United dominated possession and mounted attack after attack. One of those attacks paid off when Ryan Giggs tapped in the deflection after a good save from Rooney’s near post effort and united were looking very much in control of the game. City had nothing to offer.
Things changed however, when the shambolic referee decided to award City a penalty for a foul that was clearly outside the box. It begs the question, what prompted Merseyside born Mike Dean to make one of the worst decisions of his error laden career?
However undeserved, it gave City some momentum and some confidence to actually play a little bit. They created one or two more chances after that and were more adventurous in their attacks. United were still dominating the majority of play though, while City relied on counter attacks from the often isolated Bellamy.
The winning goal came from a corner that possibly shouldn’t have been given. Dean apparently saw a flick off Rafael that was very hard to see on television replays. Nevertheless, United defended the corner badly and the kettle spiller was left free in the middle of the box to tap in the winner.
After my initial drunken rant last night though, I’m not feeling too bad about the defeat at all. We dominated City on their own turf. They looked poor for most of the game and if not for another shocking performance from smug looking Mike Dean we’d have come away with a draw minimum.
With the Stretford End behind us next week I have full confidence that we can overturn this deficit. There was another occasion in recent seasons where we brought a team back to Old Trafford and were carrying a 2-1 deficit. Does anyone remember how that ended up?
I’m not predicting the same result this time around, but with a more adventurous starting line up from Fergie and City inevitably camped in their own half desperately hanging onto their slender advantage, I can see us winning comfortably at home to those undeserving cretins who are under the mistaken impression that they deserve success.
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