Manchester United 2-0 Portsmouth

You wouldn't have thought that the scousers had dropped 2 points the night before giving us a great opportunity to get one hand on that 18th title, the lack of atmosphere was absolutely unbelievable. Our support is becoming so embarassing it takes away a fair bit of the enjoyment off the match for me. True it was a pretty one sided game, especially in the first half, but what does that matter when the prize is almost within sight. Mind you i suppose the news of the latest season ticket price rise will have pissed off a lot of people.
The big guns were back for last night with Ronaldo and Rooney both starting. Scholes was selected for his 600th start. As usual he made no fuss and pretty obviously told the club he didn't want any before the game. Giggs came back into the team and as most times he has started since christmas he was again our best player, though Fletcher ran him close.
We made a nice start as Anderson for once got one of his passes on target to find Giggs on the left who crossed it for Rooney to dink it over James to put us 1-0 up after 10 minutes. How we went into the half time break only that goal up, i don't know. Rooney had a goal disallowed for offside that looked close and Giggs missed two glorious chances. United were playing reasonably good football though we weren't playing against much it has to be said. The second half saw us start in the same vein, but half way through the half we started to ease off and get a touch nervous for some reason. They didn't really go that close but everybody knew it would have been a massive chance gone if we didn't win the game.
Almost as soon as Carrick came on he was putting the ball into the back of the net to ease our worries. Fittingly it came through a superb pass from Scholes who showed in his 600th game why he is a favourite with discering reds. Scholes and Giggs have been 2 masters of their art for this team and boy will we miss them when they finish. If we beat Spurs on saturday we will only have ourselves to blame if we don't make 18. And that would be almost perfect revenge for the 4-1 and will give them a miserable summer knowing they blew such a great chance to have ended their title drought.

Most of the papers had a piece on the ginger prince before his 600th appearance, these are two from the Guardian and Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/paul-scholes-uniteds-quiet-legend-1672039.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/apr/22/paul-scholes-manchester-united-alex-ferguson

Tevez looking ahead to pastures new. To be honest i don't think United were going to keep him anyway. Whether Fergie is right or not i am not sure. As much working for the cause as he does, i am not sure that he is worth £20 million as far as skill, creativity and his goalscoring record is concerned. Though if Ronaldo goes as well he is going have to hope Berbatov has a better season than he has this. In fact i can see there being quite a shake up this summer as it looks like was have gone backwards this season to me. We have been nowhere near as good as we have the previous 2 seasons.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/markogden/blog/2009/04/23/berbatov_and_ferguson_edge_tevez_towards_old_trafford_exit


Keano back at Ipswich, this was a bit out of the blue, to me anyway.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/keanes-shock-return-at-ipswich-confirmed-1672777.html

Janes Lawton on the exciting game that is not to be confused with a great game. The two 3-3's with Barca in 99 spring to mind as great games.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/james-lawton-this-was-not-a-great-game-nor-was-it-english-1672529.html

Budget reactions
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-age-of-new-labour-draws-to-a-close-with-deceit-and-dishonesty-1672792.html
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/budget/article6150903.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/23/tax-regime-budget