I've had a frustrating week one way or another. Had lots of things I wanted to say about the cracking result last Saturday but didn't have any time to write. Even in the few moments I've had to think about it I wasn't sure how best to express my thoughts about the game. A game to remember. One that will stay with me for the rest of my life. When in doubt ... do a Top 5!
5. Waving bye-bye to Wayne Rooney - I've no axe to grind with Rooney. He's a great player and made a big difference when he replaced Berbatov at half time. Even with ten men we all knew United were capable of beating us and for a while in the second half I couldn't quite believe they weren't. Our second goal was too much though and Rooney's frustration was the physical evidence that the game was up. It was the final pantomime moment in a game that had made me laughing as hard as I cheered.
4. Danny Murphy's perfect penalty - My admiration for Danny Murphy right now knows no bounds. I'll be the first to admit I didn't rate him too highly last season but I've realised the error of my ways. He's been a revelation this season (the best midfielder in the Premier League?) and seems to get better every week. He does the simple stuff brilliantly and yet again was the conductor at the heart of a majestic team performance. As he stepped up to take the penalty I felt the buzz of my phone as a text arrived. It was from a Spurs supporting friend who later said he knew Murphy wouldn't miss. He was right.
3. 20,000 Fulham fans calling Ronaldo a wanker - That might seem childish and puerile but it confirmed a growing belief in my stomach that we were going to win the game. United, already a goal and a player down, were clearly getting frustrated with the Ref's refusal to fall for their attempts to win free kicks or get Fulham players sent off. I've often joked with my pals about "Fortress Cottage" and proposed ways to turn our ground into the Galatasary of south west London. Craven Cottage is not the most intimidating of grounds yet, as Ronaldo stood pleading with Phil Dowd for yet another fictional offence, we made our feelings clear. As he sulked off away from the home end it was clear we had got to him. The supposed "best player in the world" and he couldn't handle a barracking from nice little Fulham. For all his tricks and flicks he's got a lot of growing up to do before he can really show he's good enough to stand alongside the greats of the game. Maybe if he'd focused on his football he could have made a difference.
2. Sensing the big match atmosphere as we entered the Hammy End - Maybe familiarity breeds contempt but I wasn't particularly excited about playing United before we arrived. The traffic was bad and we cut it a bit finer than we'd have liked so the match was seconds from kick-off as we climbed the steps into the Hammersmith End. As I stepped into the stand the sense of anticipation was tangible. This was a massive game, a real big match atmosphere. My mood changed instantly and I felt strangely optimistic for a good result. A good game at least. That feeling never left me. A great day.
1. Zoltan Gera's overhead volley - Zoltan Gera hadn't won my sympathy in the way Bobby Zamora had. Whilst I could see he was going through a difficult settling in phase I didn't feel moved enough to really support him. His arrival against United was a necessary change coming at the point where Dempsey's willingness to chase every ball was finally overcome by his bout of food poisoning. We needed a fresh pair of legs. He did well in the build up to the second goal, collected it from Dickson Etuhu, played a good pass to AJ who almost got a shot in before returning the ball. As Gera chipped it up off his toe the first thought through my mind was - oh Zoltan, you've messed that up. Then something incredible happened. The ball hung in the air, Gera twisted his body in an unlikely shape and pulled off an amazing overhead volley into the far corner. A goal! A really great goal! A goal that was going to beat Manchester United! Hooray for Zoltan! Zoltan, destroyer of worlds!.
Got lots I'd like to talk about following yesterday but not sure when I'll have time to do it. It's Mother's Day and I've promised Mrs Chopper I'll wash the floor in the kitchen and hoover the rest of the house. Half way through but lots to do. Cooking a roast too - I'm so New Man!.
Let me just say that again. Fulham 2 Manchester United 0. Brilliant. Today was what playing in the Premier League is all about. Fulham were on top of their game from the start and United couldn't cope.
Short report. Fulham pushing forward. Scholes hand ball. Straight red and a penalty. Murphy slots home as he always does. 1-0 Fulham. United frustrated. Ronaldo pathetic. Murphy pulling the strings. Hangeland imperious. Everyone playing well. Half time began preparing for the inevitable siege.
Fulham still in charge. United bring on Rooney for ineffective Berbatov. Begin to force us back around the hour mark. Shots flying in from all angles. Schwarzer collects everything. Dempsey covering every blade of grass. Etuhu immense. Murphy off with potential achilles. Dacourt fills the gap. Zamora replaced by Kamara. Restricted to long punts down field. Kamara chases everything. Gera on for Dempsey. AJ through on goal. Shot saved. Finds Gera. Overhead volley. GOAL! 2-0! Delierium. Rooney throws away ball. Second yellow. Rooney strops off. United down to 9 and beaten men. Whistle goes. Very Happy.
Forty points. Premier League future confirmed. Up to 8th. Very Happy.
Manchester United really are a very good team aren't they? Maybe it was the detachment of watching the game from home on TV but I really didn't feel any of the anguish I'm reading on the Fulham message boards. I thought we played quite well, certainly showed signs of being able to surprise United in the opening twenty minutes. We just came up against the best team in the world in an unforgiving and determined mood.
Alex Ferguson indicted his intent with a strong starting line up and an early effort from Carlos Tevez pulled a good save from Schwarzer and required a clearance from an alert John Paintsil. United looked less confident at the back. Andy Johnson got his foot to a long through ball and directed it without any real venom towards goal. This caught van der Sar out of position and created a moment of comedy as Vidic only just won the race against a very slowly rolling goal bound ball. Still a moment of promise. Zamora (who I thought looked much more positive than he had midweek) sent in a great cross from the right wing which found Dempsey at the far post. The American's header was well directed but just a fraction too high. AJ and Zamora then interchanged passes on the edge of the box but having broken through the defence Bobby Z sliced his shot well wide of the post. Maybe we could get something out of the game?
United won a corner. Wayne Rooney flicked on from the near post and Tevez was left unmolested at the far post to head home the first goal at close range. A soft goal which you couldn't help feeling we could have avoided but a goal none the less and now we had a lot to do. Tevez received the ball in midfield and went on a run. Etuhu did well to get back on goal side and attempt to hold up the Argentine but then fell over. Neither centre back had got close enough to him to stop the shot that curled past Schwarzer's outstretched hand. 2-0 down at half time and we needed a miracle.
Fulham started the second half brightly enough but then a poor clearance from Hangeland was collected by Tevez who set Rooney free. A run, a jink and a powerful shot into the far corner. 3-0 down and game over. Nothing happened of any great interest for about half an hour as the flow of the game was disrupted by a series of substitutions from both sides. Then a loose pass from Gera set Ji-Sung Park free to run at goal and his shot into the far corner completed the rout.
Just found this article on Tribal Football of all places.
"Fulham banned the BBC from interviewing Roy Hodgson after their defeat at Manchester United this week over Alan Green's commentary.
Fulham were so incensed by Green's commentary during their 3-0 Premier League defeat at Old Trafford on Wednesday night that head of communications Sarah Brooks took it upon herself to prevent Five Live from interviewing manager Hodgson afterwards in protest at the high amount of criticism.
Brooks told the Daily Mail: "We always co-operate with the media and never complain about fair criticism. But Alan Green's comments about Fulham appalled some of our fans, who made their views known on the message boards or contacted me during the game.
"I also listened to some of his commentary myself and remarks like 'Fulham should not have bothered to turn up' were insulting. In those circumstances, I didn't feel it appropriate for Five Live to speak to our manager."
I didn't hear the commentary in question but having had the misfortune of sitting through a number of Green's previous commentaries I can only applaud Sarah for a job well done. He's an ignorant and annoying man who seems to think we've tuned in specifically to hear his "witticisms" and deserves to be taken down a peg or two.
Our biggest defeat so far this season. I'm sure had we fielded our strongest side we could have given them a better game but realistically another 0-0 was the best we could hope for. With a home fixture against a struggling team on Sunday and a cup replay next week I think Roy got his priorities right. Takes a brave man to field a weakened side at Old Trafford and whilst the result suggests the team wasn't up to the task better teams have fared no better.
Van der Sar claimed the British record of 14 consecutive league clean sheets. Well done Edwin, hope you remember that if Swansea let us have a crack at you in the cup!
Man Utd: Van der Sar, O'Shea (Evans 62), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick (Gibson 69), Scholes, Park, Berbatov (Rooney 61), Tevez Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Nani, Rafael Da Silva, Fletcher. Booked: Park Goals: Scholes 12, Berbatov 30, Rooney 63
This was too easy for Man Utd and reminiscent of the earlier loss to Arsenal. United fielded a decent side but rested several key players ahead of their European match midweek and still won at a canter. I went with low expectations, hoping that if I could convince myself we were going to lose, it wouldn't hurt so much when we did. The signs were there right from the start. Less than five minutes in and a ball over the top left our back four flat footed and former employee Louis Saha raced though to collect the ball but fire hopelessly wide. It would have been the sort of goal I'd seen Saha score for us a number of times.
Having survived we played the ball around brightly enough, but as has been characteristic of recent performances, gave the ball away too easily and couldn't find that final ball. With the first quarter hour still not up United won a freekick on the very edge of our box. I hoped it might be too close, but Owen Hargreaves caught everyone by surprise by lifting a cute free kick over the wall and into the far left hand corner of the goal. 1-0 down and we were up against it already. We tried our best to get back in the game but found it hard going. United worked really hard all game and this paid dividends. Bullard, who was not on the best of form, found himself closed down at every opportunity, United clearly identifying him as our main source of inspiration. I'm one of Jimmy's biggest fans but he didn't cope well with this and too often tried to do too much or gave the ball away too cheaply. Equally Eddie Johnson was finding it hard to fit into his role as wide midfielder. He showed poor control early on and similarly gave the ball away time and time again. As the final minutes ticked down we would have been pleased to go in only 1-0 down. It was not to be. Carlos Tevez made a surging run but seemed to control the ball with his hand (though it was a long way from my eyesight). The ref wasn't interested and play continued, eventually reaching Scholes on the right flank. He fired in a reasonable cross from the wing, which somehow found Park Ji-Sung in the box who was able to out leap both Hughes and Hangeland to head home a second goal. Hangeland and Hughes ended up in a heap looking at each other unable to explain what had just happened.
The second half continued in much the same vein. Our 5 man midfield huffed and puffed but just couldn't get a grip on the game. Time and again we failed to use the width of the pitch or play the simple ball in from the flanks. Last week I'd berated Kamara and Dempsey for doing this, but seeing E.J. and Davies perform in a similar style this week I'm begining to think this was instruction from Roy H. I don't understand what he thought he could achieve, but too often we overplayed in areas where we didn't need to and for the second week running McBride was left a disinterested spectator. The one bright spark in midfield was Moritz Volz. Early in the first half he's been caught in possession a couple of times and I'd thought he might get found out, but as the game wore on he grew into his role and became a driving force for much of our attacking play. His work rate was excellent, he won a number of tough headers and chased down, and won a number of seemingly lost causes. His eventual replacement by Nevland with less than three minutes remaining saw him leave the field to a well deserved standing ovation. By then it was all over, John O'Shea had found a way around Konchesky on the left side, shot across goal and picked up a lucky deflection from Simon Davies thigh that left Niemi with no chance to react.
I spent the last ten minutes on my feet singing "Roy Hodgson's Black & White Army" along with the rest of the Hammy End choir. Bizarrely it felt good to be a Fulham supporter again, maybe we're regaining that siege mentality of following a team you know isn't that good but, as we watched the last few fruitless attempts at claiming a consolation goal, the feeling of unity gave me a bit of a lift. I'd been angry and upset after losing to West Ham, and completely fed up after the 3-0 loss to Arsenal but for some reason I came out of this game with a new sense of purpose. It's difficult to see where we might pick up the points we need now but I'm ready for whatever happens. If we go down then so be it but I'm not going to give up hope just yet.
A 2-0 loss in which Man Utd hardly broke a sweat and we never looked capable of creating an upset. We avoided a humiliation which is not a bad thing, yet somehow looked lifeless and impotent going forward.
Sanchez stuck with the 4-4-2 formation, bringing Omozusi in to replace Baird at right back, and Kuqi in for Kamara up front. Kamara failed to even make the bench and the suggestion is that he's picked up an injury, but his absence left our replacement options pretty bleak. United got off to a fearsome start and when Steven Davis failed to clear a Giggs corner, the ball eventually fell to Ronaldo who fired in a blistering volley. Fulham's best spell came in the latter stages of the first half. First Danny Murphy had two decent attempts, the first well saved by Van Der Sar the second inches wide. Then Shefki Kuqi failed to make the most of Simon Davies deep cross.
The game was effectively over early in the second half as O'Shea sent in a cross and Ronaldo comfortably beat Stefanovic to the ball for an easy second goal. Niemi was solid throughout but was lucky to stay on the pitch after left facing Ronaldo in a one on one. He probably escaped thanks to the theatrical nature of Ronaldo's fall, but in my view had clearly obstructed the striker. Ronaldo got a yellow and maybe that's a little bit of karmic payback, we'd have been counting the cost if Niemi had seen red. Niemi made several decent saves after that, including an amazing stop when faced with another one on one with Saha. It looks like Antti is back to his best. Fulham brought on Healy for Dempsey and Seol for Bouazza but neither player could really make much impact on the game.
There are easier places to gain your first away win for 15 months so this was always going to be an unlikely place to triumph. Next stop Goodison, which on past experience may be even trickier...
My whole day has been out of kilter thanks to the Nursery where my youngest attends having to close. I thought that might mean I'd get a bit of time to knock off a quick preview of tonight's game, but somehow I've achieved very little and have just run out of time. I'm not expecting us to get much out of the trip. One win in 25 or so years at Old Trafford, no sign that Sanchez has been able to fix our travel sickness and United on the back of a 1-0 loss at home to Bolton all points to another fruitless journey for me. I hope we put up a bit of fight, the 5-1 loss at the start of last season really was the first time I began to question Coleman. It would be nice to think we've improved. On a more positive note we've not been thumped at any of the big four so far (Arsenal 1-2, Filth 0-0, Liverpool 0-2) so maybe we can turn in another stoic performance and get something out of the game. In the meantime, seeing as a picture is worth a thousand words ...
