Match Review
Portsmouth 2 v 1 Manchester United, Fratton Park, Portsmouth, 17.15pm, Saturday 7th April 2007.
Goals: Portsmouth: Taylor (30), Ferdinand (89) (O.G)      Manchester United: O'Shea (90).
Attendance: 20,223

United were beaten 2-1 at Fratton Park on Saturday losing their 6 point lead at the top of the table and making life oh so much harder to recapture the Premiership title as the gap was cut to 3 points after a Chelski victory over Spurs.

EVDS for the second game running cost the Reds the match, as the spectacularly off form keeper again parried a shot back into the danger zone, the Reds found themselves 2-0 down after another gigantic mistake gifted Portsmouth another goal as Ferdinand passed back to his keeper with little danger near only for EVDS to dash off his line, running to the the left for no apparent reason leaving no one in his goal & Ferdinand's pass rolled over the line.

SAF opted for complete craziness as Fletcher & Richardson were chosen to play wide instead of Ronaldo & Giggs & the Reds so paid for this decision as the entire 1st half was fruitless on either wing, forcing the Reds to play through a congested central area.

United simply had their eye on Roma on Tuesday as no-one stood out at all in the game for the visitors, almost as if everyone was waiting for someone to score to put this "distraction" of a fixture behind them ready for the Ities on Tuesday night.

United finally got into a small rhythm with a Ronaldo free kick which missed the target, then a dribbling run from the winger ended in a shot which went close to James's goal.

Not playing anything but average, Pompey took the lead after Richardson lost possession outside his own box, Benjani then struck an attempt at EVDS the keeper parried the ball back to Matt Taylor who without getting too much power on his effort still managed to beat United's diving keeper.

Portsmouth always the busier team worked hard, without really threatening as United being a goal down responded with Michael Carrick shooting immediately after and Wayne Rooney fired a shot wide before Fletcher made David James work.

With the end of the half drawing near, Portsmouth went close as Linvoy Primus headed over the bar & Kanu flicked on resulting in a save from EVDS.

Finally noticing his big f*ck up SAF brought on Ryan Giggs for the "please please sell him please" Richardson & the Reds veteran went straight to work creating in United's midfield making David James work as Ronaldo and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were both thwarted by the English keeper.

Giggs then struck a rocket of an attempt which James was equal to again, and a Wes Brown header aimed straight at the keeper.

EVDS later kept the Reds in the game after making a rear brilliant save from Sean Davis after Taylor crossed.

With the Reds struggling, it has to be said that there was a distinct lack of any sort of movement from our forwards for the entire game & add this to the woeful starting line up decision, throw in a little double Dutch and hey presto a recipe for disaster as in the final minute, EVDS made another howler.

Pompey's Taylor's passed toward Lua Lua but Rio covering the danger intercepted, passing back to where 99.999% of all keepers would wait to receive the ball in space to clear up the pitch but, totally unnecessary, EVDS ran off his line running to the left leaving an empty net which Rio's back pass rolled into.

This left your reporter wondering if our Dutch Friend knew any of Bruce Gobblers mates as it was so ludicrous it must have been staged.

United then scored through John O'Shea as Solskjaer struck an effort at James, the keeper could not hold on and the Irishman slotted the effort home.

The Reds almost took the lead when Alan Smith brought on as a sub struck a shot which James guessing correctly dived the right way denying Smith a hero's reception.

Punished entirely for line up selections mistakes & a having our eye on Roma on Tuesday the clock finally ran out for United who didn't want to play this game at all, and the shame full thing about it all is this was vitally important fixture which may cost us dearly.


United Starting Line-up
Player Ratings in parenthesis
Van Der Sar (3); O'Shea (6) Ferdinand (6), Brown (5), Heinze (7); Fletcher (4), Scholes (5), Carrick (5), Richardson (2); Ronaldo (6), Rooney (6).
Subs Used:  Giggs (6) for Richardson (45 mins), Solskjaer (6) for Fletcher (59 mins), Smith (6) for Carrick (77 mins).
Subs not used: Kuszczak, Evra.

United's Man of the Match
Heinze slowly regaining match fitness did his job better than all on the pitch.

Keano16's Reaction
Without a shadow of a doubt this is the worst I've felt so far this season, with the importance of the match with regard to winning the League,
the team looked like this was a distraction, no heart, soul & the movement up front was feckless.

SAF made his 1st big fuck up for a quite while and name one United fan which was happy with Fletcher & the most useless twat in the world Richardson playing on the wings, this was a shambles of a decision. 

Wasting an entire 45 minutes with nothing of any use down each flank SAF left it late even with half the game gone by bringing on Ryan Giggs after the break.  Paul Merson working in the sky TV studios talked a lot of sense when he was asked "why Richardson" the former Arsenal mystified by SAF's choice mentioned that he (Richardson) had never had a good 45 minutes for the Reds. 

Moan of the Match
I can take any defeat on the chin, however not when the team is held back by stupid line-up selections & avoidable errors

Later Merson & Ray Wilkins even mentioned that off form keeper EVDS was warming up with Goalkeeping coach Tony Cotton he was parrying the ball ala Roma back into the path of Cotton, A poor show from an massively experience keeper & what the hell was he doing for the Ferdinand own goal.

Richardson please pack your bags your fuckin rubbish & don't deserve to wear the shirt, Darren Fletcher is an honest player & lad who is also not good enough & could be a decent player for some other club, and as I have feared all year long, after luck with injuries our thin squad is starting to show why we need players ASAP.

Was Our Prediction Right?
We said 2-0, United Rant 7 v 43 Wrong Predictions.

Milestones
John O'Shea's 8th Premiership goal of his United career & 11th goal overall.
Paul Scholes is now tied in 7th Place with 517 career competitive appearances with Denis Irwin .

Miscellaneous Info
United’s next match is on Tuesday 10th April 2007 (H) to AS Roma in the UCL, 19.45pm K.O. G.M.T.