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Wednesday
6th March 2002, 7.45pm |
FA Premiership, Old
Trafford |
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MANCHESTER UNITED 4 (Beckham 2 (15, 65), Van Nistelrooy 2,
1pen (43p, 76)
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Barthez - Neville G.(Neville P.), Blanc,
Johnsen, Silvestre - Veron (Fortune), Keane, Beckham, Scholes (Butt) -
Forlan, Van Nistelrooy |
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Sheringham |
Rebrov |
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Ziege
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Sherwood
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Poyet
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Davies
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Thatcher |
Richards |
King |
Taricco |
Sullivan
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Subs not
used: Keller, Gardner |
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TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0 |
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Referee: - Mike Riley |
Attendance: - |
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It
was 4-0 and the heaviest defeat of the season, but it was only half the story
as a little wanker of a linesman ruined the game by giving the worst penalty
I’ve probably ever witnessed and then getting Treacle sent off and Spurs
reduced to 10 men. This cost Spurs any chance of getting into a match that we
were competing well in, albeit a goal down. The issue here is not referees
being professional, amateur or otherwise – just fair and able to apply the law
without most of the country thinking that the team that plays at Old Trafford
get special treatment.
At
trip to Old Trafford, while better than one to the city rivals at Maine Road,
is still low down on the list of decent away trips – expensive cramped seats in
a shitty town. I was due to meet one of the most unreliable of my Spurs mates
in the pub that we could not think of the name of but the one where we met
before the Man Shitty game last season at half five. At quarter past 6 he was
still not there but in his own inimitable style he wandered in and somehow
found a way to blame it on me. Rosie, a bloke once you have met him once is
almost impossible to avoid and John “Hazardman” had made the short trip across
the pennies from Halifax. A couple of pints later we sloped off to get a tram
full of wankers to the ground.
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On the way up from the cricket ground it is reassuring to see that at
least one thing was still here from the last time we won – Lou Macari’s chip
shop on the Chester Road – a reminder of what they once were before the PR
machine ran riot. Rosie,
who’d confessed to having £20 on a Dean Richards/1-0 scorecast at 350/1 as a
strategy to alleviate his student debt somehow persuaded me to get two
programmes and I spent a good while trying to get a load of suspicious Mancs
to take it off my hands – the irony being that I would eventually lose the
programme I retained at half time, leaving me with none – a series of events
which summed up our evening nicely. |
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With
the big game against Chelsea coming up, Sir Les who was carrying a knock was
rested in place of Rebrov and Davies retained his place in the middle of the
park with Richards, King and Thatcher making up our back line. No squad
rotation for ManUre against us and it was all the usual suspects. The swirling
wind did not help play tonight, nor did the two dozen or so plastic bags and
bits of debris that swirled around in the middle of the pitch – not quite
fitting the image ManUre try to peddle of themselves.
Tottenham
controlled much of the opening fifteen minutes with open play that has
characterised what everyone still regards as the most charismatic fixture in
the English League calendar. Richards – with Rosie no doubt dreaming of his
bank balance – had the best early chance when he headed over when he should
have at least found the target from a Ziege corner after Rebrov’s shot was
deflected. Veron had a long shot deflected for a corner before it was back down
the other end and Davies was unlucky to see his shot deflected for another
corner before Sheringham, with nothing else on was forced to shoot from 25
yards which produced a routine save for deodorant head in the United goal.
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15 minutes gone – no scares and a decent performance – so far so
good. All this changed when out of the blue, Beckham was running with the
ball with Thatcher trailing behind. Beckham ran diagonally in from the
touchline and hit a low left footed shot when he got to the box, which
fortunately for the Tottenham reject and not for us was deflected in. A
load of cardboard cut outs momentarily stood up as the scoreboard explained
to them that ManUre had scored. |
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The
rest of the half saw decent possession and passing by Spurs right up to the
United area but nothing really beyond that while it was a similar story for
United until the moment that changed what was an even and interesting match
into a one sided farce two minutes before half time. A ball was played through
to Scholes who was on the edge of the D when Treacle appeared to pull him back.
Scholes threw himself upwards but managed to stumble a few yards until inside
the area where upon he went down like a sack of shit. Riley – who can most
charitably be described as a mug did not award anything until he saw the Lino
waving his flag. Oh Bollocks – it was going to be a Beckham free kick and how
many bookings has Treacle got now with this one? But to the amazement of
Beckham who had the ball in his hand and the rest of the stadium he not only
awarded a penalty but sent Treacle off.
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Firstly
– it was clearly well well well outside the box – NO PENALTY Secondly
– Treacle was not the last man -
NO SENDING OFF and
add to that Riley did not see anything wrong in normal time (a view backed up
by TV evidence – the dynamics of Scholes dive could not have been caused by
an upper body shirt tug) – it was an absolute scandal and incidents like
these can only bring discredit to the Premier League and English Football in
General. The reaction to Treacle in the papers owned by the same Parent
company that owns ManUre were a sad reflection of the racism which exists
within the game. |
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Van
Longface smashed the ball home & the game was dead for both sides they had
a two goal lead and we were left to chase the game with only 10 men. Keane, who
minutes earlier had been booked for a dirty bastard foul on Poyet, was let of
with a talking to after another dirty bastard tackle from behind left Rebrov in
a heap. There was no way that Spurs let alone any team could compete with a
situation like this – if we’d have scored I’m sure there would have been a
reason for disallowing it dreamed up.
These
are not sour grapes – just a reality. Everyone at the game knows that it was
not a penalty or a sending off, just as most people will say, me included that United
would probably have gone on and won anyway irrespective. But were we denied the
chance to see it or the chance for Spurs to nick something in the second half?
Football is not scripted entertainment or at least it should n’t be.
Halftime
was just as bad – my unreliable mate managed to get himself at the back of the
queue for a beer and I managed to lose my programme! but it was good to meet up
with Steve Marson from the “Can’t Smile without you” group and for those of you
who follow celebrity watch – both “Osama” and Cyril Smith were present at the
match – although I have not seen Sugar the tramp for a match or two.
Despite
being all over for us – Hoddle chose to replace the Rebrov with Ferdinand and
the great man nearly continued his fine run of scoring against ManUre but he
headed over and missed when he really should have scored (What, Sir Les miss
when he really should have scored
- never!) within the first couple of minutes and for the first time in
the match we had a proper goal threat.
At
the other end, Sully was in good form denying a few United players as they
piled it on. While we did not have much to laugh at Diego Forlan looks more
Davenport and Birtles than Van Nistelrooy – spurning several good chances – but
while we tried to get back in the game – a breakaway started by him outpacing
Richards, allowed Van Nistelrooy to pass to Beckham who smashed in the third
giving Sully no chance.
United
scored a fourth later on – a fine turn in the box and a fine finish from Van
Nistelrooy, a player who for once in these days of Premier league marketing
does actually live up to the hype and will be missed in the World Cup in the
summer.
But
by now events on the pitch were incidental and it was a Dunkirk spirit that
took over the Spurs fans. When we let the goal in I sprang to my feet with
“come on you spurs” or something and a row or two in front of me at the exact
same time former webmaster of the Legend site Bruce Lewis did the same thing.
Others did it all over the Spurs end and soon it was sustained chanting of
“Glenn Hoddle’s Blue and White Army” for the last 20 minutes of the match – a
fine spectacle. The “Can’t Smile without you” lads also managed to get their
song in and it was a proud time to be a Spurs supporter!
Out
of the stadium in the long queue for the tram back to the city centre the match
was forgotten – just hope as the pieces fall into place behind the scenes at
Spurs in two or three seasons time we can come here and really compete with
United (assuming we are allowed to keep 11 players on the pitch for 90 minutes)
but for now all thoughts turned to Sunday and Chelsea in the Cup – COME ON YOU
SPURS!
Taricco (5/10) – Sent off for no reason
Thatcher (5/10) – Did his best- which was often not good enough,
but you cannot fault a player who tries his best.
Richards (6/10) – Did mainly ok, although was done a number of
times in the second period
King (7/10) – Had a lot of work to do and was mostly excellent
Ziege (5/10) – Not his best day for Spurs but had the good
grace to come over to the supporters at the end, which was appreciated by
everyone
Sherwood (6/10) – Had a decent match but had no answer to trying
to organise 10 men against 11
Davies (5/10) – Did some good stuff but his lack of experience
against the very best was exposed in the central midfield role as opposed to
the advanced midfield role. Did his best and cannot be faulted but it was not
his day
Poyet (5/10) – Did ok in the opening exchanges, but was not the
man to back up the defence when we were down to 10 and was sacrificed for Mr Ed
Sheringham (6/10) – Had an enterprising opening half but lacked
support and by the time Sir Les arrived it was too late
Rebrov (5/10) – Anonymous – I just hope we get our money back on
him without making a loss
Subs:
Perry (6/10) – Grazed around for the last quarter and I would
have had him in from the start
Ferdinand (6/10) – Carrying a knock and the aim was to rest him for
the cup game but Rebrov’s performance meant a second half appearance where he
did ok
Etherington (6/10) – A few minutes at the end
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