Article by Mark Graham, Stats Nerd

Match Review
F.A. Cup 5th Round  Replay: Reading 2 v 3 Manchester United, Madejski Stadium, 20.05, Tuesday 27th February 2007.
Goals: Reading: Kitson (23), Lita (84)     Manchester United: Heinze (2), Saha (4), Solskjaer (6)
Attendance: 23,821

For the second game running United used a "get out of jail free card" as hat trick of goals in the same amount of minutes rocketed the Reds to a three nil lead with only 6 minutes gone.  However this was an oversight and flattered the Reds who struggled for large portions of the match against Reading, especially in midfield where SAF had John "I wear Divers boots" O'Shea & Darren Fletcher centrally paired, there was no room for Gary Neville at all (Liverpool in mind Id expect) meant Wes Brown continued at right full back where he was tortured by the South Korean Ki-Hyeon.  Alan Smith was a surprise inclusion as was Rooney & Ronaldo who most expected would not feature & Alan Smith would.

With two minutes gone United won possession on the right of the pitch and John O'Shea ran behind the Reading defence before dragging a pass back through the penalty box, which the hapless for the entire game Kieran Richardson miscued, the ball rolled to the on rushing Gabriel Heinze who struck a powerful effort on target but straight at Reading's keeper,  Last match Federici was awarded Man of the Round for his Old Trafford heroics but not this occasion as this time he could not hold on to the powerful strike & the ball squirmed over the line for a goal.

Almost immediately after the kick off United gained possession again and a 50 yard pass from Rio Ferdinand deep in United's half saw Louis Saha control with his chest taking the ball down expertly before rifling in with his left foot from an angle not much different from OGS against Lille (A) in Halloween 2001.  Not content with 2 United scored again after Richardson passed to OGS who waited before striking a shot with the outside of his foot for 3-0.

Dumbfounded and in shock both Reading & most United fans couldn't believe what was happening, with less than 10 mins gone the score was 3-0, Coppell soon changed his formation from 3 at the back to a 4-4-2 which steadied the battered ship that was Reading, temporarily United almost made it 4 as Saha struck a post after turning & shooting in the box.

At the mid way point of the half Reading pulled one back after a sustained bout of pressure, after a corner Ingimarsson flicked on to a totally unmarked Kitson, who with the easiest of chances scored from a header two yards out.

As the game wore on the United midfield was collapsing by the minute & inviting untold pressure on the United defence which creaked and groaned throughout, Richardson caught several times in possession was making matter worse and the startling observation of how we so need a ball winning midfield player at our club was evident.

Before the half EVDS started to earn his MOTM as Steve Sidwell forced a  save from the keeper, a brilliant piece of keeping next saw him tip John Oster's cross away from danger, his next the pick of the bunch saw him save from Seol Ki-hyeon as his dived full stretch to his right.

The second half was a no show as far as United's attack was concerned and the hair dryer must have been mandatory at the final whistle for some of our defending &  the pathetic showing by our central midfield which just invited pressure, Edwin Van der Sar continued his fine form after a save from Kitson, but couldn't match a Lita header from a Glen Little cross with six minutes left, giving Reading hope & maybe a deserved equaliser in the last segment of the game.

Holding on for dear life at the end United's defenders looked nervy and edgy as Reading pressed on for a deserved equaliser, Brynjar Gunnarsson smashed an effort on the crossbar in the dying stages of the game after teasing Wes Brown but the Reds held on to win for the second straight match, albeit deserving the runners up award .

United Starting Line-up
Rant Ratings in parenthesis
van der sar (8); Brown (4), Ferdinand (6), Silvestre (5), Heinze (6); Park (7), Fletcher (5), O'Shea (5), Richardson (3); Solskjaer (6), Saha (7).
Subs Used: Rooney (6) for Saha (76 mins), Ronaldo (n/a) for Solskjaer.
Subs not used: Kuszczak, Smith, Scholes.

United's Man of the Match
EVDS much like the Fulham game was employed more than anyone would have liked, and wow did we get a display, bollocking the back four, shouting at Fletcher & Silvestre, like a true United keeper.

Match Reaction
When will we get back to our normal form of this season, we have played pretty poor against Lille, Watford, Charlton, Fulham, Reading twice but won all but one fixture, good honest football where we deserve to win is everyone favourite, however, Id take Liverpool to hit the post 6 times & us get an own goal in our next fixture.

Was our Prediction Right?
We said 2-1, United Rant 7 v 34 Wrong Predictions.

Milestones
Gabriel Heinze's 1st FA Cup goal of his United career & 4th goal overall.
Louis Saha's 3rd FA Cup goal of his United career & 37th goal overall.
20LEGEND's 8th FA Cup goal of his United career & 125th goal overall.

Miscellaneous Info
United’s next match is on Saturday 3rd March 2007 (A) to Liverpool in the Premiership, 12.45pm K.O.