Met 10 or 12 City fans in Aberdeen airport which is great as half of them I don’t know. Spoke to John Booth and his wife from Ellon. They manage four games a season due to work commitments so it was good to catch up with them. Johns one the lucky ones who has never seen City beaten when he’s been to watch them. I do know people who have never seen them win, but that’s changing thankfully.
Met Des & Alan Fergie at the airport and took possession of the semi final tickets when we got to the ground.
Now the tram service is running it makes things a lot easier getting to and from the Etihad which is worth noting – the taxi drivers must be suffering badly.
Now to the football : City played well, the way the goals were executed was brilliant, it was freezing cold and Newcastle must improve if they are to carry on in the Europa Cup.
Strangely Samir Nasri was given man of the match and although he played well and was probably substituted due to injury,I thought Gareth Barry was superb once again.
It was good to see Kompany & Aguerro back in action. sometimes you don’t realise how much Vinny is missed until he starts playing again and he scored a poachers goal as well.
Aguerro just frightens the life out of defences and we need him fit now for the forthcoming cup games.
For once I thought the referee was extremely competent for a change, Neil Swarbrick, he let the game flow and booked those offenders who required calming down. He also had words with the time wasting goal keeper which is unusual.
Normally United fans don’t appear to discuss favourite games & favourite goals but MUFC appear to be resurrecting the Rooney overhead kick goal for some reason or other, bearing in mind that was two seasons ago, they normally put these nothing’s bed quite quickly.
I left at Aberdeen at 5AM to get down to this match, the talk of the week had been snow and how England was getting it badly. I picked up Wayne, Kieran and Darren in Dundee at the back of 6 and then we headed down the road to Manchester. Wayne and I were late for the away match of this fixture at the start of the season and didn’t want t a repeat of that. We got parked in the velodrome which was free – normally they have someone charging for parking so this was a nice surprise. We headed into the City centre for lunch at Red Hot Buffet where we got our fill of Pizza, Pasta, Chinese, Indian and Desserts. We checked out the club shop and Wayne bought a new top before meeting Steve Pickston and heading along to the ground and City Square. It was pretty cold so we all headed into the stadium in good spirits all expecting convincing City win. As we went up the spirals Kieran let me know he has never see City lose, leaving me thinking I hope today isn’t the day.
The match started perfectly with Silva turning in a cracking Dzeko shot from close range. City continued to play the ball around well but Fulham were getting back into the match towards the end of the second half. They managed to get a few runs down our left hand side and a few dangerous looking crosses into our box. As much as I am not a fan of Berbatov you have to admire his touch and ability on the ball. City scored a goal in the 68th minute when David Silva slotted a ball past Schwarzer into the corner of the net only to miss out on his hatrick a minute later when he slid one in just past the post, the crowd heckled him humorously, we all love our magician.
A great result in the end only to made even sweeter with United dropping points away to Spurs the next day.
Manchester United’s 6-1 defeat to Manchester City “the worst in my history” says Sir Alex Ferguson
Sir Alex Ferguson described Manchester United’s 6-1 defeat against Manchester City as an embarrassment and admitted Roberto Mancini’s team subjected him to his worst ever day in management.
Ferguson, who celebrates his 25th anniversary as United manager on Nov 6, witnessed his club’s biggest derby defeat since another 6-1 loss to City in January 1926 just one short of United’s record home defeat, a 7-1 loss to Newcastle in September 1927.
Playing with 10 men following the 47th-minute dismissal of defender Jonny Evans, United on Sunday capitulated in the dying stages as City ran in three late goals. But with City moving five points clear of United with their emphatic victory, Ferguson admitted he had never experienced such a dark day as a manager.
It was our worst ever day, Ferguson said. It’s the worst result in my history, ever. Even as a player I don’t think I ever lost 6-1. I can’t believe the scoreline. The first goal was a blow for sure, but it was retrievable at 1-0.
I’m shattered, I can’t believe it. It was an incredible disappointment, but we will react, no question about that. It’s a perfect result for us to react to because there is a lot of embarrassment in the dressing room and quite rightly so and that will make an impact. You have to recover. The history of Manchester United is ‘another day’ and we will recover.
The humiliation of United’s defeat resulted in the club’s American owners, the Glazer family, being barracked and jostled by home supporters as they travelled from the players’ tunnel to an awaiting helicopter.
Sources in the tunnel reported angry chanting outside as the Glazers left the stadium for their transport to Wembley for the NFL fixture between their Tampa Bay Buccaneers team and the Chicago Bears. Rio Ferdinand, the United defender, cancelled his plan to travel to the game for a guest appearance on the pitch.
With three City goals coming in the final minutes, however, Ferguson insisted that United contributed to their downfall.
The sending off was the killer blow, Ferguson said. After that, we kept attacking. I thought with the experience we’ve got Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra they would have [defended more] but we just kept attacking.
It’s all right playing the history books [United’s reputation for fighting back] but common sense has to come into it. When we went to 3-1, 4-1 we should have settled for that. We kept attacking when we went 4-1 down and we should have just said: ‘We’ve had our day’. They were attacking three versus two. It was crazy football and it was a bad day.
But we’ll come back. By January, we’ll be OK. We usually get the show on the road in the second half of the season and that will have to be the case. Over the years we have always enjoyed a better goal difference than our rivals but after today, we are 10 goals short.
Despite his team’s incredible victory, City manager Mancini played down the significance of the result.
I’m satisfied because we beat United away and I don’t think there are a lot of teams that could win here, he said. But I’m not satisfied for the 6-1 it’s because this is important for our supporters and maybe for the goals in the table. I am happy with the three points.
Against Tottenham we played very well and against Bolton, but this is different because we played against a strong team like United. In the end there are three points, finished, we don’t take six points for this game.
I think the season will be very long and probably four or five teams that can win the title.
This is important for our confidence, it’s important because we showed that we are a good team, but we should appreciate the mentality United had because after 1-0 and the sending off, they continued to play to score. I think that’s a very important mentality.
Mancini, who shared a post-match drink with the United manager, claimed he took no satisfaction from humiliating the Scot.
No, because I have big respect for him, Mancini said. I have big respect for United because we are talking a top manager and a top squad.
I still think United are one yard above us. I think we can only change this after we win the title in the end. After, maybe it will be different, but now United are better than us.
A great day was had at Old Trafford by all the blues and we made it onto TV
City went back to the top of the Premier League following a blood and thunder 3-2 victory over Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium.
First-half goals from man-of-the-match David Silva and Gareth Barry put City two-up before Ivan Klasnic reduced arrears before the break.
Edin Dzeko scored just after the re-start and it was the Bosnian’s strike that proved to be the winner, despite Kevin Davies pulling another goal back for Bolton just past the hour.
There haven’t been that many occasions in the past where these two teams have gone into the game knowing the winner would top the embryonic Premier League table, but with both sides starting their campaigns with a 4-0 win, the summit awaited the victors of this Greater Manchester derby.
A great start to the season and City looking strong
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