Forthcoming Fixtures

City travelled to Altrincham's Moss Lane ground where the crowd was swelled by a large contingent of Manchester United fans posing as Norwich City fans whilst demonstrating their dislike for their American owners who were ever so great when they won the Champions league final a couple of seasons ago. The game was all action as City had many chances in the opening minutes but it was United that raced into a two nil lead thanks to goals by Reece Brown and Will Keane but were pegged back by goals by Alex Nimley Tchuimeni and a ninetieth minute penalty from Andrew Tutte.

City really started on the front foot as they caused the United defence a lot of problems but Belgium centre half Ritchie de Laet was always there getting a block in or Nimley was rather wasteful with his chances or was not offered the support as the usual James Poole was not getting forward as much as he usually would; that was until the eighteenth minute when he went on one of his runs and had a good shot that United goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler did well to save but he could not hold on and the rebound fell to Nimley and he shot to the far corner that again Zieler did well to save and put behind for a corner that Dedryck Boyata headed just over.

A minute later and United were in front when Ben Mee who had one of his worst games in a City shirt made a clumsy challenge on Senegalese forward, Mame Biram Diouf on the right. Oliver Norwood put in the out-swinging cross that Reece Brown ran on to for a free header past David Gonzalez Giraldo into the City goal.

Nearing the half hour mark with United forcing the pace with Diouf being the main protagonist and creator he set up United's second goal with a run down the right hand side and beat a few challenges and Giraldo came out but left the goal empty for Diouf to cut the ball back and Keane cheekily back heeled the ball into an empty goal.

City then woke up again and started to force the play back again. They then won a corner in the thirty third minute which Kieran Trippier whipped in that Boyata headed on to the far post and Nimley poked over the line.

Diouf being United's best player in the first half if was relief that he did not appear for the second half as that seemed to lose a focal point for United upfront and gave City the chance to be camped in the United half for long periods.

City's chances fell to Nimley and Big John Guidetti with both being created by strong runs down the right by Javan Vidal who had had very little impact in the first half but was certainly making up for that in the second half.

Then probably a moment that really turned in City's favour when a United player played a short ball to De Laet and gave Poole the opportunity to challenge and Poole won the ball 60:40 and drove through that hard that De Laet was left prostrate on the ground whilst Poole played the ball to Guidetti who sent a slide rule pass for Tutte to run onto but when he got in the penalty area he shot straight at Zieler. The play was stopped as clearly De Laet had suffered a bad injury and a stretcher was brought on to take United's best defender off the field.

With five minutes remaining the United goal lead a charmed life but epitomised what Ferguson's teams are about because they never gave up as they cleared three shots of the line in the space of about ten seconds.

Seeing that commitment as a City fan you could be forgiven for thinking it as not going to be City's day; that was until the ninetieth minute when Greg Cunningham headed on a United forward ball to substitute Chris Chantler who flicked the ball onto other substitute Robbie Mak who ran at the defence on the left before cutting inside in the penalty area but his marker Brown had gone to ground and instinctively pulled the ball away with his hand for the referee to be given no choice but to award the penalty; but he failed to send Brown off for the professional foul. So Brown had gone from hero to zero. City have Tutte as their nominated penalty taker and he confidently powered the ball into the corner of the goal.

That result leaves City's away record as unbeaten and barring anything unusual should remain so and shows that it was our home form that has cost us winning the title this season and probably allowed Liverpool to go on and win it.

Man United perspective

http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={B4CEE8FA-9A47-47BC-B069-3F7A2F35DB70}&newsid=6647248&page=1

Teams:

Manchester United:

Robert Zieler, Brown, Gill, C Evans, Wootton, De Laet (Eikrem 76), Norwood, Possebon, Biram Diouf ( Stewart 46), W Keane, Obertan (Brandy 66)

Subs: Devlin(GK),

Manchester City:

Gonzales-Giraldo, Boyata, Cunningham,Tutte, Onuoha, Mee, Vidal (Mak 71), Trippier, Nimely, Guidetti (Kay 86), Poole(Chantler 80)

Subs: T Johansen(GK), Redshaw

Att: 2,039