Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Manchester United 2-0 Stoke City

A pretty ordinary performance, but with our injury problems last night was all about the three points and they were delivered pretty comfortably, with the result coming in from Goodison last night turned into one to remember.
Stoke have a terrible record at Old trafford since they returned to the big time, but the law of averages says they must get a result or even put in a performance here at soome time. So i can't say i was totally confident of our chances ahead of last night's game. I should have known better, once again Stoke didn't turn up, United didn't really play that well, unsuprisingly, but then again they didn't have too. That was one of the easier games of the season. Third choice keeper Ben Amos might start to think that premier league goalkeeping is a doddle, he hardly had a save to make all night.
Once again Paul Scholes started in the first eleven and this time he stayed on for the full ninety minutes, we have looked far better since he has returned. We all know he isn't the player he was, but he is still able to dictate games like this.
Stoke's manager Pulis complained about the penalty decision's after the game, he was surely having a laugh, they were both nailed on penalties and the only thing the referee got wrong was not awarding us a third that was even more obvious than the two given. It was nice to see Hernandez get on the scoresheet, and even better that, whilst he wasn't brilliant, it was his best performance for a while. Berbatov had an in and out game, though to be honest there was much service to him.
I was suprised to see Pogba given his little cameo and even more suprised, to be honest that it was such a promising one. He looked class in the youth team but i have been disappointed in his performance level when i have seen him in the reserves this season. It was a pity he couldn't tuck away his chance to really cap the night off.
Once United went two up, United decided to coast the game, happy to take the chance if it came along but more than content with the 2-0 victory and no more injuries. Which of course is where having Scholes back is so crucial as he just keeps us ticking over controlling the tempo of the game. The night would have been even more perfect if Berbatov had converted the chance that the excellent Valencia put on a plate for him, but when the result came through from Goodison that was totally forgotten.

I have to admit that i fancied Everton to get something from the clash with City before last night's game, but if i had known Everton's back four line up i wouldn't have been so confident. And to top off everything Darron Gibson scored the winning goal.

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