Derby County 1-4 Manchester United

This season seems to get better and better at the moment, and the encouraging thing is the future looks as though it could be even better. We saw in the carling cup that this could be a tricky affair with the squad players given a chance with some of our big names given a rest. But with Giggs again giving a magnificent perormance and Darron Gibson showing that maybe he will be able to fulfill the potential that he showed in the youth team after all it turned out to be a bit of a stroll in the park.
It was nice to see Evra back in the frame and he played like he had never been away. Evans came in for Vidic who presumably was given a rest after being virtually the only ever present in our record breaking back four over the last couple of months. Gibson got a start in his favoured position in the middle of the park besides Fletcher whilst Nani got a rare start on the left. We had an unusual pairing up front as Giggs sat just behind Ronaldo.
United started the game well and although it took half an hour for the goal to come there was only one team the goal was going to come form. Fletcher had a half decent chance before that but the goalie made a pretty straight forward save. Bywater had to make an altogether more eye catching save minutes later as Park ghosted in at the back post and hit a side foot volley that looked to be beating the derby number one, but an instinctive outstretched arm saved the day. But on the half hour the goal finally came, and it was worth the wait. It came from the right boot of Nani, i'm not his biggest fan but the one thing you can't deny is that he has got a great shot on him. The goalie had no chance as he cut in from the left and let fly.
The big talking point of the first half was the disallowed goal and the lenght of time it took to give the offside. I think the laws have got to be clarified over this. If fourth officials are going ton help in the decisions that are made on the pitch then we should be told. I am not certain it was offside anyway he looked level to me. It made no difference anyway as United got their second just before the interval as a Ronaldo free kick was blocked but landed at the feet of Gibson who capped a very impressive first half performance with a goal as he volleyed it first time. Rafael should have been given as offside but it was the same linesman and to my mind he just evened up the mistakes.
The beginning of the second half saw United pick up where they had left of in the first half . And the third didn''t take long to come with Ronaldo powering home a Giggs free kick with his head to kill the game stone dead. United started to take the foot off the pedal a bit now, understandbly enough. And Derby started to come into the game for the first time in the game. United now made a double substitution and i thought that was what cost us the goal as United hadn't really settled when a good cross from the left found Addison who headed home a good goal. Welbeck now came on for the reds as it became end to end as Derby gave it a real good go. But it was to be United having the last word as another sweeping move saw Fletcher feed Welbeck on the left hand side of the penalty area and the young Mancunian hit a superb curling shot across the goalie a bit reminiscent of the way Henry used to angle his shots from that side of the area.
The main plus to come out of the game for me though was the performance of Gibson. For the first time he played creatively looking for the dangerous passes, attempting them and finding his target with a good enough percentage of them. When he has had his chance before he has too often just played it square and back. Admittedly he has played on the right for a fair few of those games which hasn't really done him any favours. But if he was to come through and be real United player that would be a big bonus because i am pretty sure he would get us 7, 8 or even maybe 10 goals a season from the middle of the park. And whenever Ronaldo does leave for Espana we are going to need those goals.

Daniel Taylor drools over over Giggs performance in the Guardian match report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/15/ryan-giggs-manchester-united-fa-cup

Hansen praises Giggs and nominates him as his player of the year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7892375.stm

Great players don't always make great managers part.....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/gabriele_marcotti/article5740517.ece

This guy should never be allowed to pass the fit and proper test, if it it comes to that
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/16/alisher-usmanov-arsenal
Read Craig Murray's website to read about the nasty piece of work that he is

BMW would never dared have done this in Germany
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/fury-as-850-mini-workers-given-hours-notice-1622989.html

Nationalisation it is then
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/complete-nationalisation-of-lloyds-not-on-table-says-no10-1623451.html

Charlie Brooker on form
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/16/walkers-crisps-new-flavours-brooker