fa premiership, Matchday 27
St James Park, Newcastle, 19.45pm GMT, Wednesday 4th March 2009.
Attendance: 51,636

Article by Mark Graham, Editor, Record Keeper & Official Reporter @ MUFCINFO.COM.

Manchester United had to fight back from an early scare @ St James Park on Wednesday night after a rare EVDS gaffe had gifted the Magpies an early opening goal, after an entertaining game goals from Rooney & the eventual winner from Dimitar Berbatov claimed all three points & established United's strong lead at the top of the table to seven points with a game in hand.

SAF rang in the changes as expected with several rested players returning to the United line up, EVDS, Vidic, Carrick, Fletcher, Park & eventual goal scorers Rooney & Berbatov all started against Newcastle.

The View

Newcastle in similar vain to the recent Blackburn Rovers match demonstrated an appetite for a scrap and took the game to United troubling Rio, Vidic & co at the back from the early get go with a dangerous cross from Taylor which EVDS collected.

Looking comfortable in attack & dictating to the visitors the speed of the game, Newcastle impressed & were rewarded for their positive beginning to the game albeit in the form of a mistake as EVDS's much talked about record was broken in the blink of an eyelid.

After Cristiano Ronaldo had won a corner from his deflected shot, the resulting corner was cleared from Newcastle's penalty area & found Lovenkrands who slipped a quick pass to Gutierrez, surging up the pitch & after a pass from Jose Enrique the Argentine tried an effort from distance & in a "bread and butter" type scenario save from United's veteran keeper EVDS saw the ball bounce unkindly at his person & the Dutchman failed to gather assisting Peter Lovenkrands with the easiest of chances much to the Danish forwards surprise as he tapped in from close range for 1-0.

Congratulations to Edwin & his defenders on a monumental achievement of 1,311 minutes without conceding a goal.

With United clearly rattled & struggling to contain the movement of Martins, Lovenkrands & Gutierrez the Magpies were a whisker away from taking a 2-0 lead when once again a swift counter attack had United on the back foot.

Rio Ferdinand closely marking Martins was suckered in close to the speedy front man almost on the centre spot & as Ryan Taylor's pass was flicked on by Martins to Lovenkrands, Martin's leaving Ferdinand for dead moved into space & let fly an angled shot which hit the side netting.

In your Editors opinion Nemanja Vidic should have been sent off in the next passage of play after Martins with a tremendous piece of skill skinned the Serbian as he dashed into the Manchester United penalty area, Vidic sensing danger callously cut the Striker down just outside of the box & was lucky to be shown a yellow card from Steve Bennett as a result.

Rio having more than his handful later blocked another Martins effort from a Newcastle corner & with United starting to edge possession again the Reds capitalized to the maximum with a finely crafted equalizer.

Build up play on the right wing from JOS & the brilliant Ji Sung Park gave Wayne Rooney on the edge of the box a perfect opportunity, with much to do to foil Coloccini, Rooney gather JOS's pass & with a top quality turn struck a left foot shot toward goal which clipped Steven Taylor on its passage to the back of the net.

Newcastle replied to the goal with another dangerous cross from Taylor on the right of goal as Vidic stuck out a leg in desperation almost steering the ball into his own net but deflecting the ball wide for a corner to Newcastle.

From the corner EVDS flapped & fell to his knees in the box spreading panic in his defence & as he flailed like a fish out of water before a feckless dive at the feet of Martins saw the Nigerian 's shot blocked by Ferdinand.

Shortly before half time Vidic almost took the lead for United after a Carrick corner had travelled untouched & unchallenged to the far post, the Serbian unmarked & rushing to meet the corner somehow managed to miss the ball totally and therefore sliding into the netting himself instead of the white thing full of air which mystifyingly went wide of its intended target.

With literally seconds left in injury time, the game took a controversial spin as what can only be described as "Steven Taylor delivering a text book World of Sport Les Kellett forearm smash" to the side of Cristiano Ronaldo's head before decking Michael Carrick on the touchline with a undeniable yellow car offence in the form of late low sweeping foul.

Under no illusion that Ronaldo was hurt in anyway despite the 27 rolls before coming to gentle stop at the advertising boards youre reporter could only feel that Taylor had been the architect of a double yellow card for his two offences, but on fair reflection to Vidic deserving Red earlier, Steve Bennett saw fit to produce a yellow card when it most definitely should have been a red.

Ask yourself the question, if this was Rooney would he have walked??, the answer is yes.

United's Captain Rio Ferdinand hunted Taylor to voice his opinion & was later booked for his persistent complaints at Steve Bennett.

With no love lost at the start of the second half Vidic received a Martins elbow for his troubles & the Serbian had to be taken off for treatment to a cut below his right eye.

With United winning in the possession contest, Newcastle mustered up a chance after Lovenkrands was foiled by EVDS before Steven Taylor was guilty of some slack, inferior defending for United's eventual winning goal.

A long ball into the box from Rooney to JSP was chested toward his keeper by Steven Taylor, but failing to reach Harper, JSP nipped in first & dinked a delightful ball past Harper into the path of the waiting Dimitar Berbatov to score with ease into an empty net.

Manchester United will arguably not face a tougher match than this for the rest of the season & will count themselves lucky to escape away from St James's with three points, as once again the exceptional Martins very nearly latched onto a ball in the United penalty area after a cross from the left had evaded the jumping Vidic, United last defender Patrice Evra saw his knee deflect the ball onto his face & as the ball fell to the floor Evra did just enough to put off Martins who was lurking before falling to the floor.

United in the closing stages were denied by good keeping from Harper after saves from Ronaldo and Berbatov & a third save at the feet of Ronaldo who had beaten Steven Taylor found Rooney who tried a delicate chip which went over the bar.

Still not dying & lying down like against Liverpool earlier in the season both Lovenkrands and Martins had efforts saved by EVDS as Newcastle's time ran out & United breathed a sigh of relief as another so called struggling side gave the World Champions a good run for their money.



A Happy Birthday goes out to our very own to Mr Kevin Killen who is 50.




A big up goes to Lucy Randles & her Dad for the tickets & the Wife Stacy for the car!!!!

Mark Gate for the ticket	Steve Power	Grant Gledhill	Trevor Ennis

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