Newacsatle United 0-0 Manchester United

Not really the bounce back from Saturday that i was hoping for, but i suppose a point away from home isn't a bad result. With the return of Rooney and Hernandez up front i was hoping we would have too much firepower for a team that isn't the greatest at the back. It was to be expected that they would have a go at us on their own patch, but once United had weathered that i was hoping we would make our class tell.
I suppose that they did up to a point, they certainly made enough chances to have taken away the three points. Maybe Berbatov wil feel better after watching from the stands and seeing Rooney, Hernandez and Giggs all miss presentable chances. The Giggs chance  in the second half where he was supplied by Evra, who for once delivered a pin point cross, was the chance of the match. Maybe that was the moment when once again we wondered whether it was going to be one of those nights.
At least we ended the game in total control and had made enough chances to have won the game on another night. But what a glorious chance to put the maximum amount of pressure ahead of their trip to White hart lane tonight.
Fergie was critical of the Hernandez booking whilst Pardew thought he dived and it was deserved. I don't think he dived but i can see why he didn't give it.

Mark Ogden explains how United could sell Berbatov and make it a good piece of business. Unfortuantely you buy players to do the business on the pitch not do good business of the field if you want to win things. This is obviously in the good old days pre Glazers when we were a proper football club.

Some snippets of an old Ruud Van Nistelroy interview from this Dutch reds blog, glad to hear he regrets the way he left United and that he has such fond memories of the club. Though it is obviuos in retrospect that Fergie sold him at the right time i was always sda that he left in such a manner. He would be the centre forward in my all time United team, it's just a pity for him and for United that he was the club at the wrong time.

Lancashire CCC are to go ahead demolishing one of their main stands as they forge ahead with their revamp plands despite Derwent's plans to appeal.

Duncan Weldon wonders if right wing economics operates in a " mirror universe ".
Irish commentators have been comparing their economic woes with the very different experience of the Icelandic state with increasingly envious eyes. It should be clear to anybody with half a brain that whatever the so called economic orthodoxy says you should do, then the experience of the last fifteen years or so suggests you do the opposite, Argentina, south east Asia and now Iceland.

Robert Fisk asks if Syria's president Assad can cleanse his regime or is it finished.

Andrew M Brown tells us why the Florida murders remind Brits of America's divided society that the free market right hold up as the model to emulate. He will have the home counties spluttering with rage remarking most Brits would be uncomfortable with that model.

Terry Eagleton in praise of Marx thinks Marx might be back on the agenda as capitalism still hasn't worked itself through the upheavals of 2008 and the old order still thinks it can go back to business as ussual.

Frank Zappa