We have been historically deemed to be "Notoriously bad-starters" each season - a theory which I have found tough to accept. But for the fourth consecutive season, United have failed to grab all six points off the first two matches of the season and therefore, I would like to give in and accept the pattern.
A visit to Craven Cottage have been a thorn in recent times, the last two occasions have seen us suffer 0-2 and 0-3 reverses. These two results were good enough for me to be really charged up for this fixture to extract revenge.
Rooney was ruled out with a bug and hence didn't travel. We started with our two next best strikers in Chicharito and Berbatov. But it took a typical Paul Scholes long ranger to break the deadlock, a very sweetly timed kick indeed.
From then on we continued to be on the offensive and I was clearly under the impression that we were heading towards a annihilation of Fulham. How wrong was I? Fulham soon settled down and the combination of Bobby Zamora and Simon Davies started creating havoc for our defense, most particularly Jonny Evans who had a torrid time. Still we survived a few nervy moments, none better than the Van Der Saar double-save off Etuhu. We were soon made to pay for our frailties when Davies pulled back close to the hour mark, which our stopper almost saved again, but only almost.
Nani came in for Valencia, Giggs came in for Park.
Owen replaced Chicharito, but to be very honest this looked an irrelevant substitution in the end, as Michael only got the ball twice in 15 mins play.
United went ahead ahead with 7 minutes remaining on the clock, via a Brede Hangeland own goal from Nani's corner. We could have killed the game within the next couple of minutes when Damien Duff was punished for (not deliberately though) hand-balling in the danger area. Nani stepped up for the kick and though he was in my Fantasy League team, i had my fears that we have given it to the wrong man. Ryan Giggs was so effective last season burying two penalties out of two against Spurs. It was a real surprise that he chose to hand it over to the Portugese, who hit it low and at a predictable direction to the very impressive Fulham stopper - who promptly stopped to keep the home team in the game.
This wastefulness from the winger was made to pay dearly when the culprit became cult-status-ed in no time. Having just scored a own-goal, Hangeland leaped the highest to nod down the equalizer in the 89th Minute and thereby creating a redemption for himself. Mark Hughes - who suffered his worst injury-time nightmare last season when Michael Owen poked past Shay Given in the 95th Minute to eke out a winner - was spared the blushes this time. United couldn't do much with 4 added minutes and thereby we dropped two valuable points, though I'm not sure if we really deserved to win. One more attempt at the Cottage ending in heartbreak.
Last season, Michael Carrick missed a penalty against Burnley. For me, that miss along with Valencia's goof-up in a one-on-one situation against Blackburn in the later part of the season, were prime reasons for us missing the league. I hope we don't have to look back at Nani's miss as another pivotal moment, come May.
One of my friends (Reon) told that he wouldn't look too much into the Newcastle game as our biggest tests will come away from home. How correct he was?? In our first game on the road, we were in all sorts of trouble and hardly looked like winning, in spite of the fact that we lead twice.
C'mon United - Get on with it and Get ahead. I hate being part of the chasing pack, even though this is the very beginning.
Pictures courtesy: http://www.zimbio.com
A visit to Craven Cottage have been a thorn in recent times, the last two occasions have seen us suffer 0-2 and 0-3 reverses. These two results were good enough for me to be really charged up for this fixture to extract revenge.
Rooney was ruled out with a bug and hence didn't travel. We started with our two next best strikers in Chicharito and Berbatov. But it took a typical Paul Scholes long ranger to break the deadlock, a very sweetly timed kick indeed.
From then on we continued to be on the offensive and I was clearly under the impression that we were heading towards a annihilation of Fulham. How wrong was I? Fulham soon settled down and the combination of Bobby Zamora and Simon Davies started creating havoc for our defense, most particularly Jonny Evans who had a torrid time. Still we survived a few nervy moments, none better than the Van Der Saar double-save off Etuhu. We were soon made to pay for our frailties when Davies pulled back close to the hour mark, which our stopper almost saved again, but only almost.
Nani came in for Valencia, Giggs came in for Park.
Owen replaced Chicharito, but to be very honest this looked an irrelevant substitution in the end, as Michael only got the ball twice in 15 mins play.
United went ahead ahead with 7 minutes remaining on the clock, via a Brede Hangeland own goal from Nani's corner. We could have killed the game within the next couple of minutes when Damien Duff was punished for (not deliberately though) hand-balling in the danger area. Nani stepped up for the kick and though he was in my Fantasy League team, i had my fears that we have given it to the wrong man. Ryan Giggs was so effective last season burying two penalties out of two against Spurs. It was a real surprise that he chose to hand it over to the Portugese, who hit it low and at a predictable direction to the very impressive Fulham stopper - who promptly stopped to keep the home team in the game.
This wastefulness from the winger was made to pay dearly when the culprit became cult-status-ed in no time. Having just scored a own-goal, Hangeland leaped the highest to nod down the equalizer in the 89th Minute and thereby creating a redemption for himself. Mark Hughes - who suffered his worst injury-time nightmare last season when Michael Owen poked past Shay Given in the 95th Minute to eke out a winner - was spared the blushes this time. United couldn't do much with 4 added minutes and thereby we dropped two valuable points, though I'm not sure if we really deserved to win. One more attempt at the Cottage ending in heartbreak.
Last season, Michael Carrick missed a penalty against Burnley. For me, that miss along with Valencia's goof-up in a one-on-one situation against Blackburn in the later part of the season, were prime reasons for us missing the league. I hope we don't have to look back at Nani's miss as another pivotal moment, come May.
One of my friends (Reon) told that he wouldn't look too much into the Newcastle game as our biggest tests will come away from home. How correct he was?? In our first game on the road, we were in all sorts of trouble and hardly looked like winning, in spite of the fact that we lead twice.
C'mon United - Get on with it and Get ahead. I hate being part of the chasing pack, even though this is the very beginning.
Pictures courtesy: http://www.zimbio.com
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