Manchester United 2-0 Q.P.R

I have to admit i couldn't wait for yesterday, i couldn't see us not taking care of Q.P.R and i couldn't see City coming away with the three points they needed if we did the business. So safe to say yesterday turned into some Sunday, when that goal went in at the Emirates the Tollgate fucking exploded.
As for the games themselves they didn't really go the way i thought they would, i didn't expect us to make such heavy weather of a team who are probably destined to go back down to the championship after the briefest of stays in the premier league. And even though Arsenal took the three points they made harder work of it than i thought they would, especially given City's abject performance. I suppose i shouldn't have been suprised at United's laboured performance, i mean when was the last time we really did play well. I know that this is the stage of the season when it's results that matter not performances but yesterday showed why the Champions league isn't on the agenda in May.
The opening goal set the tone for the match with away team giving away a penalty and going down to ten men. Needless to say TV pictures showed that Young was actually offside and shall we say made the most of Derry' challenge. Things don't go for you when you're at the bottom as Wigan would no doubt testify after Saturday's daylight robbery at Stamford bridge.
The sending off may well have set the tone for the rest of the match, Q.P.R's match tactics had been to get everybody behind the ball anyway, after going down to ten men, nothing really changed except they became even more determined to keep the scoreline down. It may well have affected United as with the comfort of the one goal lead and the man extra United didn't exactly bust a gut to try breaking down the defensive wall the visitors had set up. There were a lot of moans in the crowd about United trying to walk the ball into the net, but that is what we should be good enough to do. If we want to be competitive in Europe we have to be quicker and more imaginative than we were yesterday.
We were a little better in the second half and were probably unlucky to only come away with only the two goals. Rafael was unlucky with his effort and Carrick even more so, that would have been one of the goals of the season but for the woodwork. It was left to that man, Paul Scholes to settle the game with a superb shot from outside the box. Desperate or not, his decision to come out of retirment was absolutely crucial to what looks like a 20th title. One little bonus from the day was Cleverley's introduction late on, for the first time since his second lenghty lay off he looked like the man who got us so excited earlier in the season. I know it was only against ten men, but even so it was a encouraging.
To be honest the most exciting part of the day was getting back to the Tollgate to watch City throw the towel in. Arsenal started as i expected throwing everything at City but when the goal didn't come i thought City would start to get back into the game, a decent side would have. Of course City are a decent side but they don't seem to have any bottle or any togetherness either. I would have settled for a draw, but that late goal was just dream time really. I still have to pinch myself thinking that we are going to collect that 20th league title, our football has been very mundane after that first month of false promise, but beating them to the title, especially after that disastrous derby mauling at our place has made it oh so special.

Gary Neville talks about the changing mentality surrounding diving and gamesmanship. Fergie heaped the praise on Scholes after the game emphasising his importance to our improved form since he returned to the squad, I didn't know we had taken 34 out of 36 points since his return, that's some record. Giggs takes the piss, i presume the massive is a dig at our noisy neighbours.

William Keegan tells Osborne that he must learn from history and admit his mistakes. I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that he would gladly take being a one term chancellor if the tory can make the changes to the NHS, keeping the City happy and ruthlessly cutting the size of public sector workforce that Labour would probably be too craven to reverse.
Larry Elliott warns that preventing the next housing bubble must be a priority for the Bank of England.

Fergie's finest ?

I don't know whether the journo's get bored of writing these Fergie's finest moments, but i can't say i get bored of reading them, though it seems a touch on the realy side for Daniel Taylor have penned it. It has to be up there amongst his finest prmier league title triumphs, for any number of reasons. The loss of so much experience, even if we did get Scholes back half way through this season and how vital has that been. An ever changing back four, mainly injury induced and a young foreign goalie whose English wasn't great. And finally a midfield that has needed rejuvenation for a couple of seasons at least, that lost the hoped for coming man Cleverley and during December saw Rooney moved back to admittedly better effect than i expected.
A season that has seen Carrick and Evra at centre half and Park and Fabio in central midfield at one point and Valencia wasted at right back at others and yet if things go according to form we won't just beat money bags City to the title we could win it by as big a margin as we have won it by for a few years. The football hasn't been great and i would think there will be a few changes in the summer, with a couple more, other than Berbatov on his way out. But it's not been that bad for a team in transition, again. We have truly been spoilt under Fergie's leadership. As Robert Duvall as Colonel Kilgore said in Apocalypse now, someday this wars going to end, so one day will Fergie's time as manager. A day every United fan must dread and every fan of every other club yearn for.

Valencia is going to need an operation at the end of the season, but apparently wants to delay it so that he can play for Ecuador in a couple of world cup qualifiers in June. A hard decision for United, you would ideally want him to get a full pre-season in, but you also want to keep the player happy. I suspect they will take the latter option.
Rio Ferdinand belives this has been a tough league this season, with the improvement of City and teams like Swansea and Norwich coming up and playing football. English football's record in Europe tells a different story. Obviously those two promoted teams have played good footbal and deserve to be where they are in the league, but for all that there has been some special matches, the fact that United defensive record is only marginally worse than City's and could be the best in the league by the end of the season, after our injury nightmare during the first half of the season tells you the quality of defence has not been the best.

The mail claim United and Chelsea are in a race to capture Broussia Dortmund's Japanese international Shinji Kagawa. I have seen a little bit of Dortmund in the Bundesliga over the past month and i can't say he has stood out to me. If there was any truth in this, the cynic in me would say that with Park's United career winding down the Glazer's are desperate for another Asian star at the club for "commercial reasons".

Andrew Cole thinks Mancini's mistakes have hurt City in the title chase. I think that's obvious to everybody, not just reds and probably blues. His statements have been absolutley bizarre at times, slagging Balotelli off in public, saying United wouldn't win at Blackburn and claiming if City go eight points behind on Sunday the title race is over. Regardless of the fact in the latter case he is surely right, you don't say it publicaly.
If the manager throws the towel in, what does he expect his players to do, i have to wonder more and more whether he knows he is on his way out at the end of the season.

This article for Labour Uncut describes why Ken Livingstone's candidacy for mayor of London could end up hurting the party very badly, not just in London but nationwide. I have never had much time for the newt lover, he has always been an opportunist to me, and his current campaign is just confirming that ssumption with knobs on.

Frasier Nelson has a decent piece on the current controversy over the government's plans for national security and civil liberies. Naturally i would be against, it's just another land grab by security interest that once given up will take years to claw back.
But the part that really interested me was his description of Clegg's part in the mess. You really do have to wonder some times how much of a Liberal Clegg really is, how could he not know that he grass roots and even his back benchers would be up in arms over this. Every time he puts in a performance like this surely his standing in the party must be less and less secure, what on earth are the Lib dems actually for if they coalesce in putting this act onto the statute books.

Interesting times in Italy as the Northern league's Umbert Bossi gets the old heave ho. I suppose you would have to say you couldn't make it up, the party that only came into being to protest about corruption and government largesse south of Rome and here they are, in it up to their necks along with everybody else. John Foot tweeted yesterday that it was no coincidence that this has come out now Berlusconi is no longer in power.

Music

Arctic Monkeys - Suck it and see: They seemed to change their musical direction in more of a heavy rock style on their last album with reasonable if not really memorable results. This is an improvement, an excellent album with better and more memorable tunes.

Avishai Cohen - Seven seas: I like this fusion of jazz with north African influences well to the fore from the Israeli born bassist.

Darondo - Listen to my song (music city sessions): Another lost classic from the seventies, it's amazing music as good as this never found an audience. Funk/soul at its very best, right from the first track there's a great groove, and to think these were only sessions.

Jonti - Twirligig: Catchy electronica from the Australian based South African, there are influences galore, pop, techno and bits of hip hop.This track reminds me of Aussie outfit The Avalanches.

The Juan Maclean - Everybody get close: I loved his first techno album Less than human and this carries on the good work from that. Hints of New Order every now and then, though it's more aimed at the dancefloor than indie cross over.

White Denim - Last days of summer: This is more like a session or B-sides album and so doesn't really show the group at their excellent best. It still has it's moments, at times more pop than the first two proper albums.

Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Manchester United

City gave us an opening on Saturday and last United took full advantage, it took 80 minutes to break through but they showed great patience, experience shone through. Thankfully it was a far better performance than we saw last Monday against Fulham and it probably needed to be as the home team are obviously fighting for their lives and didn't make it easy for United.
I can't say i was that enamoured with the team selection, i didn't mind the change to 4-3-3, my beef was with playing Hernandez up front on his own. To be fair Hernandez didn't have a bad game and if luck had been on his side he would have been on the scoresheet, but the woodwork and Robinson conspired to keep him off it. United started far better than we have of late, keeping possession and looking likely to penetrate the home teams rearguard far more than we did last Monday. Blackburn got everybody behind the ball and we hardly saw them as an attacking force until just before half time. But they then created two pretty good chances and De Gea had to be at the top of his game to keep them out. The injury to Lindegaard was very unfortunate for him, but it looks like it has been the making of the Spaniard who is now beginning to seriously look the part. What has been most impressive recently is how he can be out of the game for long periods but do the business when required, which is just what a top class goalie at top club needs to be able to do. It looks like our scouting system deserves some gold stars for picking him out to replace Van Der Sar.
United came out in the second half determined to stick to the game plan and kept plugging at it. Unfortunately it wasn't really happening and as time went on i started to look at my watch, but though we weren't really creating real clear cut chances the team never seemed to panic. The bench was the strongest it has been in ages and that couldn't have come at a better time. Fergie brought Welbeck and Giggs on as United started to really turn the screw. But it was United's man of the moment who cracked open the home teams defence with another great run and finish with the outside of his boot. I thought he meant it, even though after the game he said it was fifty fifty, it wouldn't have been a very good cross anyway.
Just to emphasis the depth and strength of the squad it was third substitute Ashley Young who made sure of the points with an excellent shot five minutes from time. He probably feels hard done to, having been on the bench for the last two games, though i'm sure a championship medal will soothe that pain. The scene has now been set for what promises to be a very significant Sunday afternoon in the 2011-2012 title chase. If we do the business on Sunday against QPR at Old trafford the pressure on City at the Emirates will be something else. I shouldn't tempt fate but i thoroughly expect United to have on hand on that championship trophy on Sunday night as i can't City getting anything Arsenal

The late goals were typical Manchester United Fergie told the press after last nights welcome victory. His hugging of the touchline showed that Fergie knw how important last night was and probably he was as tense as most of us fans.

Andrew Cole wrote ahead of the weekends fixtures about experience counting at this stage of the season and thinks we will find out how much City are made of in the coming months. Paul Parker thinks Viera's behaviour has been embarrasing for Manchester City and that their actions in banning the reporter who quoted Viera was small time.

It was fitting that such a big match in our season was played out in front of our biggest away following of the season who didn't let the team down with a top performance of the pitch. A lot of talk about crowd atmosphere recently, most of it negative. The atmosphere has been dire for a few years now, but this season has been a nadir, especially when we have witnessed the top backing that Ajax and Bilbao brought to Old Trafford. It seems to me even the club bigwigs have become embarrassed how quiet it has become.
Whether the new proposals for a singing section if and when the away fans are moved to tier three and that corner is adopted as a new singing section will work, i don't really know. It really depends on whether the club want it to work, it seems to me. If the stewards behave as they do everywhere else, telling them to sit down at every opportunity it will be a damp squib.
Putting the disabled scetion in K-stand was a big factor in destroying the atmosphere,  it would be great if that could be moved and the old K-stand atmosphere could be recreated. Even if it does work and the crowd to their left join in the disabled section will probably stop the atmosphere going round the ground. I suppose anything is better than nothing. I wonder whether it's Fergie and the players who have urged the clubs suits to do something, it must be like playing at a church sometimes.
I watched the Bundesliga game between Dortmund and Stuttgart of Friday night which was a storming 4-4 game played in front of the kind of atmopshere that we can only reminisce about nowadays. And it has to be said, it's hard to see how you could ever hope to replicate that kind of atmosphere without a return to standing at matches. That wall end that Broussia Dortmund have created is absolutely the dogs bollocks.

Anandu Unnikrishnan writes come in munber thirteen your time is up, claiming Park is not the player he was. We will see if whether the oft quoted " he's only here to sell shirts ", really holds any water this summer i feel. It can't have gone unnoticed by the player himself that Fergie doesn't really seem to have the same faith in the player as he did. He hasn't really started too many matches this season and hasn't had the best of times when he got on the park. It seems to me that the way Barca have changed the bar with their play and tactics have made players such as Park redundant.
At the age of 31 you wonder whether Park himself is happy to be playing a bit part role for the club with just a few years left in the game. As for United with Pogba and Cleverley coming more into the picture next season would any money from a Park sale free up funds to bring in some much needed new blood.

It's not been a great couple of weeks for blues whether football or politics. Andrew Sissons argues that with our economy on the edge, two key factors inturning things around will be exports and productivity.
Phillip Inman looks at a chancellor who wants to tap into a world awash with money instead of turning Britain into a country who earns its own money. 
Even institutions as conservative as the Dallas federal reserve think that banks are too big and too powerful writes Robert Reich.

Larry Elliott argues that the shock Bradford by election result was a symptom of the north south divide, other countries have their depressed regions but nowehere else are they so big and the will to fix them so little.

The New Yorker takes a look at how the Daily Mail conquered England, interestingly that it specifies England and not the UK. I wonder whether it sells as many copies in the north and midlands as it does in the south. It has been the one of, if not, the biggest critics of the BBC's move north. The Daily Fail is a decent nickname.