Manchester United 2-0 Bolton Wanderers

A comfortable win in the end but it took a terrible decision by the ref for us to get that vital first goal that changed the game. As in most recent games United played some decent stuff but when they got to the danger area of the pitch there seemed to be no cutting edge again.
Ferguson had said in his press conference that he would revert to the policy of forward rotation that we had around the time of the treble. Yesterday he was true to his words as he left Rooney on the bench and paired Tevez with Berbatov with Ronaldo and Park providing the width. Gary Neville got the nod ahead of Wes Brown again and seems to be getting his touch back. I still don't think he is or indeed will be the Gary Neville of old he doesn't have the pace to get past his man when he makes his overlaps and was always cutting back inside and trying to cross with his left peg. With the important European game on Tuesday coming up i expected Scholes to stay on the bench as indeed he did. The problem with that at the moment is that there wasn't enough creativity in central midfield. Fletcher had a good game but he is not really a creative midfielder whilst Anderson is finding it hard to find his form at the moment.
Another problem yesterday was playing both Berbatov and Ronaldo when both are clearly nowhere near full fitness. I know the only way they will get back to full fitness is by playing but it means the team might suffer a bit in the process. That said United didn't play badly in the first half against a Bolton side that came and put everybody behind the ball. United had chances but they were generally shots from distance and Jaaskelainen wasn't realy tested too hard. In fact Bolton who had offered virtually nothing as an attacking force for the first 40 minutes then proceeded to open up United to produce the best chance of the first half which Muamba some how managed to miss when it was easier to score.
The second half saw Bolton come close again early on through Gardener after which United got a grip back on the game. But it still took an apalling decision by referee Styles to get the lead which our play just about deserved. Ronaldo cut into the penalty area and ran straight at defender Samuel who pulled off a great tackle. Inexplicably the referee blew and after taking a while where he seemed to me to be making up his mind what to give pointed to the spot. I don't think Ronaldo dived but he is so theatrical when he goes down it's hard to know for sure. When the referee blew i thought he was going to book Ronaldo for diving. It was all a bit embarrasing but Ronaldo kept his composure and stuck the ball away to give us the lead. Now on came Rooney and the ginger prince and could we see what we had been missing as almost straight away Scholes took complete control of the match spraying brilliant passes all over the pitch. The second goal came form a sublime move which saw Ronaldo run through and back heel to Rooney who cut inside his man and curled a beautiful right footer into the corner of the mouth. Now United really started to play and there were a host of chances with Berbatov starting to show some really classy touches. If those last 20 minutes were an example of how things turn out when everybody is fit and Berbatov starts to get used to the way we play then exciting times are just around the corner.

Ferguson reveals his belief in Jonny Evans
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1069169_fergie_has_faith_in_evans

Ben Chu is worried about the financial prospects for United under the Glazers
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/openhouse/2008/09/why-manchester.html
Who isn't, but i am just as worried about who they might sell out to. As odious as Malc and the boys are i would hate to see us being owned by the kind of religous fanatics that have moved in at the boo camp.

AC Milan player admits to being Fascist, that must go down well with some of the foreign players.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/27/italy.acmilan

Mike Atherton on Darren Gough
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/mike_atherton/article4820447.ece
I totally agree with his stance on Lancashire in the second part of the column and i am hoping that they will revert using more locally based players as they did when they have had their great sides of the past. It's fine to have your Wasim's, Clive Lloyd's and Murali's but just some of the foreign players have not been anywhere near that class.

The dude speaks to the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/sep/27/1
He has been in some cracking films

Paul Newman dies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/sep/27/paulnewman.usa
I love cool hand Luke, it seeem that he was a great guy as well. That is some money given away to charity.

Credit crunch time
Will Hutton is scared at the turn of events
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/28/globaleconomy.creditcrunch

Jeremy Warner blames the regulators
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/jeremy-warner/jeremy-warners-outlook-in-the-blame-game-its-regulators-who-are-most-at-fault-944118.html

John Gray sees the end of American super powerdom
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/28/usforeignpolicy.useconomicgrowth

Bradford & Bingley to be nationalised
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7640143.stm
Robert Peston on the disaster that was the demutualisation of building societies.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2008/09/bb_end_of_an_era.html