Manchester United 1-1 Newcastle United

It seems we have left the boring 1-0's behind and are back to the more free flowing football of the beginning of the season. Trouble is we seem have to have forgotten how to win temporarily, hopefully. If i'm honest i would prefer to watch the last two games all day long compared to the run of 1-0 victories we ground out recently. Trouble is if we are going to challenge for the title the 1-0's are the way forward.
Unlike Tuesday night though, this was a game we should have won by a hatful. Though we produced a cavalry charge at the end creating chance after chance that somehow wouldn't go in, it was in the first half and in the period between Hernandez flukey goal and the barcode equaliser that we let ourselves down.
The first half was a mixed affair, we played some cracking stuff with some brilliant counter attacks, but the finishing had gone absent without leave. Hernandez seemed strangely hesitant in front of goal, missing a couple of decent chances, where you would normally have expected him to
convert at least one of them. Newcastle's goalie Krul made an outstanding save from Giggs as the game was swung end to end. The vistors were not slow in coming forward and did have a couple of chances, De Gea making a couple of fine saves. But it was United who looked more dangerous , albeit not when they got into the box.
The second half saw United really take a grip on the game, and it was only what they deserved when they finally took the lead. The irony being that after the great moves and great chances United had earlier created, when the goal came, it was a total fluke, the ball hitting Hernandez rather than the other way round.
Now United stepped up a gear, going for the geordie jugular, Fabio missed a great chance and when a brilliant flowing move ended with Ashley Young taking past his man on the edge of the box and then firing wide you wondered whether there might be a sting in the tail.
There was but of course, there shouldn't have been. Fergie has said the only person in the gound who thought it was a penalty was the linesman, and i would think that was not an exageration, it was a howler. Newcastle's Ba converted the gift and it was game on.
Newcastle did have one more decent chance, saved well by De Gea, but from now on in, it really was one way traffic. When Guttierez was sent off with about ten minutes to go, i wondered whether that would be a good thing or not, as you knew theywould now put everybody behind the ball and hope for a draw. And that they did, how they managed to stay level, i don't know as United completely pulverised them for the reminder of the game with an unbelievable amount of chances. Great saves, goal line clearances, the woodwork and bad finishing conspired to two points dropped.
Because of the disappointment, i don't think Giggs got the credit he deserved for an absolutely outstanding performance in central midfield. When he puts in performances you have to pinch yourself to remember that he is 38. Until Cleverley gets back Carrick and Giggs is our best midfield pairing. I thought Fabio had a pretty good game, he hasn't had that many outings this season, so it was a nice reminder that when Jones and Smalling become our first choice centre half pairing, we have the future right back in the squad already as well.
The one player i'm worried about, even though he got better as the came progressed was Ashley Young. He could hardly put a foot wrong in the first half, his crossing was piss poor, he doesn't seem able to shield the ball at the moment and he can seem a bit of a one trick pony at times. It's all a far cry from the beginning of the season. I suppose we have got to hope it's just a lack of confidence that will return. What makes it worse for him is seeing the man he is really replacing on the left, Giggs put in such an effortlessly brilliant display inside him.
All that said, it was a great game of football, you can't win every game, and if you are going to suffer, at least it was an exciting couple of points lost. With the result the day after leaving us exactly where we were i suppose it really was two precious points dropped, but there is still a long way to go.

The Telegraph wonder whether Fergie has talked himself into a ban from the FA again, it would be pretty scandalous if he got done for this, if you can't criticise the officials when they make a mistake that bad, he might as well not talk to the press.

Contrasting news for two members of our central midfield as Fergie announced last week that Anderson would be out until at least next February with a knee injury which will see him travel to Portugal to visit the man who operated on it last time. It's not a nice thing to say, but as far as i'm concerned he will not be greatly missed.
At least we had some potential good news with the Mirror reporting that Cleverley is ahead of schedule in his bid to get back to full fitness. Two caveats there, it's the Mirror and if they are right, let's hope that he hasn't been rushed back as the rumours had it, after his injury on his return at Goodison. It will be good to have him back as we know Giggs can't do two games on the trot any more.

Andy Cole talks of his liking for 4-4-2 and his dismay for it currently being regarded as outdated. Well i like it, but i think the order of the day is for tactical flexibility, and i think United are as good anybody out there for that.

Fergie explains the process of singling out youth team players who have a chance of making it to the first team at United and how United go about introducing them to the first team. It's interesting that he mentions Michael Keane but not Will, unless he has mixed them up that is. The fact that Michael made his debut at Leeds would suggest not.
Fergie is hinting that we may see some of the youngsters involved on Wednesday against Palace in the league cup with Pogba close to a full game. I have been disappointed in the couple of games i have seen him in for the reserves so far this season, that said he was shunted out to the right in one of those and that isn't his position at all. It's now being reported that he is close to signing a new deal, good news.

Peter Oborne wrote this piece about cricket's obsession about money and the risk to test cricket between two aboslutely magnificent test matches, the South Africa-Australia and the amazing drawn test match between India and West Indies. He is absolutely right that it was a nonsense that there wasn't at the very least a third test match in South Africa.

Steve Richards argues that George Osborne is breaking away from his plan A, even if he will not admit it, and doesn't think the tories present strategy is an electorally winning one. Bagehot explains the pressure on David Cameron to go for growth and then argues for the same old neoliberal agenda that got us into this mess, that's a D- then.
Will Hutton thinks that the coalition has started to get constructive, if only in a small way, but it has a long way to go, pointing out some of the measures he thinks it must take to get the economy growing again.
Andreas Whittam-Smith argues that any growth will have to be fairer growth, making the rich pay their tax will be one way to achieve it.

Sir Christopher Meyer shows his diplomat roots warning of the return of the German problem and of British foreign policy which was traditionaly geared to the balance of power theory. Fabian Lindner compares the current crisis with the great depression years and argues that the current German position mirrors the US position of 1931, which is a pretty good analogy.
Jeremy Warner thinks that those who think that the Eurozone crisis is an opportunity for Britain, shouldn't bet on that.

Charles Moore has another column dedicated to the problems of modern capitalism, arguing that Margaret Thatcher knew that it must work for the masses. But paints over the fact that her destruction of our manufacturing base has left us in a poor position to reap any benefit from our depreciated currency. That it was on her watch that big finance was allowed to let rip, that the current housing policy shambles all have their root in the eighties or that that she positively gloried in the trickle down economic theories that have left inequality on the present gargantuan scale. And maybe even that one of her goals was to encourage the left to have a leader as far to the right as Blair, so that under 13 years of new labour, the neoliberal project was followed as happily as under a tory administration. As Frasier Nelson argues at the end of the day there isn't that much seperating Labours approach to the economy, even now.
She was too much in control of her own party and maybe even the zeitgeist of the times to be compared to Harold Wilson, but for all the electoral success she had as little impact on the long term fortunes of this country as pipe smoking Yorkshireman.

Not very good quality, but the album this was from was class