Manchester United 4-3 Manchester City

What a screamer that was, the last minute that is, whether it was the best derby of all time as Fergie has said i don't know. But i know how sick i would have been if we hadn't have won this, and after Ferdinands unreal last minute blunder it looked like we would only come away with a point from a game which for the second half had been one way traffic.
As good as we had been going forward, in the second half anyway, the defence and goalie had a bit of a mare as individual mistakes opened the way for all of their goals. To be fair it was the same the other way round, but we created many more chances that the four goals actually scored and thoroughly deserved the victory, too much injury time or not.
We couldn't have got off to a better start after some dreadful defending from City allowed Evra to cross to Rooney who was coolness personified to slot it past Given. Then the kind of blunder that if you have been watching Foster this season had looked like coming. He is not great with the ball at his feet and almost always wants too much time and of course Tevez is just the kind of striker ready made to bring the mistake out. That he did and then fed Barry who slotted home. Unbelievable really, City hadn't been it and now they were thrown this lifeline. They grabbed hold of it and were possibly the better team for the rest of the first half as Fergies team selection came back to haunt us. I couldn't understand how Park could start in front of Nani or Valencia and we had a lack of width, help for Rooney and Berbatov and not enough goal threat. Park has always been a defnsive option playing on the other wing from Ronaldo and tucking in to help cover the defensive deficincies we suffered due to Ronaldo's lack of defensive work. But now we have lost Ronaldo i am not sure i see the point of Park. He certainly didn't do anything going forward on Sunday, not that we expect that much from him.
The miss of the match came not long before half time as Tevez showed why Ferguson was right not to make a concerted effort to keep him. Toure fed him and the Argentine could only hit the outside of the post, it was one hell of a miss.
The second hald saw us get off to another flier as Giggs causing mayhem on the left got his centre over for Fletcher to rise above everyone to head it powerfully home. But we gave the lead away quicker than in the first half as the ball was given away on the half way line and Bellamy moved inside and hit a great shot that Foster couldn't keep out. Now the game became one way traffic as United showed character and good teamwork to start to really boss the game and create chances, Berbatov had two great chances and i thought he had a pretty good game. Unfortunately Given was having a great game making a string of fine saves the best of which was probably keeping out Giggs shot. I thought we really started to turn the screw when Valencia came on for Park and they were left with a threat from both flanks. Owen replaced Berbatov with 12 minutes left. Almost immediately we were back in front as a Giggs free kick saw Fletcher rise head and shoulders above everybody again to head home and surely we thought seal the three points. But then a bizarre attempt at a pass from Ferdinand saw him gift the ball to Petrov who fed Bellamy who raced through to score with Foster not covering himself in glory again. And now to injury time and the extra minutes that Hughes cried about but apparently the ref was thoroughly enitled to award as the 4 minutes is only a bare minimum. Giggs showed his experience and class to calmly assess the situation and feed Owen whose first touch and finish were sure and the three points were there at last.
A great derby and probably on a par, from a red perspective obviously, with the 5-0 during the 94-95 season, but i would still go for the 3-2 when we had been 2-0 down at half time and came back with Keano scoring the winner at the back post in the last few minutes that came just after Galatasary had knocked us out of the Champions league. The man of the match could come from any of Rooney, Fletcher or Giggs who have been the three players to impress most this season with Scholes not playing.

A couple of Daniel Taylor articles on the derby firstly the day Fergie was proved right about Tevez?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/sep/20/michael-owen-carlos-tevez-manchester-united
And the antipathy between Hughes and Fergie
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/sep/21/alex-ferguson-mark-hughes

Two new books about the greatest econmist of the 20th century
http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/09/keynes-economics-economy-crash

An exhibition that i wish was coming to Manchester
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/17/moctezuma-aztec-ruler-british-museum
It's amazing how few anglo saxon people now about Cortes and Montezuma and the fall of the Aztec empire, surely one of the greatest stories in history.

Clegg faces dissent over savage cuts, i said at the time it was nuts for the liberals to pick a man on the right of the party when the times were calling for someone on the left.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/clegg-faces-frontbench-dissent-on-cuts-1791489.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6844322.ece