fa premiership, Matchday 29
Craven Cottage, London, 15.00pm GMT, Saturday 21st March 2009.
Attendance: 25,652

Manchester United lost again in the League as Fulham defeated the Champions 2-0 after more cock ups & poor form contributed to the fixture, Danny Murphy scored a penalty after a handball which saw Scholes red carded & at the death Gera scored an acrobatic overhead kick with only one minutes left, putting a dent United's almost faded points advantage.

At has to be said that Paul Scholes was sent off inside 20 minutes for United when he needlessly handballed on the line, leaving his team with a man down & referee Phil Dowd no option but to send the veteran off, a veteran who should be fined by his club for stupidity & who should have known better.

SAF introduced some fresh new faces into the team as Berbatov, Fletcher, Evans & Scholes all were given starts but it was Fulham who looked the better team at the start as Clint Dempsey fired wide in only the second minute.

United then made what was arguably their only chance of the 1st half when Patrice Evra (Editor: who was woeful) crossed from the left found Dimitar Berbatov who headed over the bar.

With Fulham employing their two strikers to play deep (almost in midfield) United were finding proceedings difficult to build any sort of forward momentum as time after time Fulham's midfielders were disrupting & snapping at the heels of any United forward who gathered possession & the more the game wore on, the more United started to pass the ball into tight area &  losing possession.

Zamora then shot at EVDS who had one of the busiest days of the season as the former Hammer had more influence on the match.

A spell of pressure with Zamora & Andy Johnson causing United some uncomfort led to the opening goal after a corner from Simon Davies was headed goal bound by Brede Hangeland, Zamora causing more problems saw his header saved by EVDS before Paul Scholes stupidly blocked Zamora's second with his hands, leaving Referee Dowd no option but to send off Scholes.

Danny Murphy then sent EVDS the wrong way from the resulting penalty to give Fulham the deserved opener.

Playing with ten men for the next 70 minutes & the overall importance of the lead at the top slipping like a freshly caught salmon from our very grasp, both Scholes & later more embarrassingly Rooney & Ronaldo should be punished by the club for a total discipline & lack of thinking about the current situation they were in.  Scholes & United had 70 minutes with 11 men left if Fulham had scored & Rooney was already on a yellow card before he threw the ball, Ronaldo yes was standing up for himself after Pansil was kicking lumps out of him I know, but has to take it on the chin.

Minutes later after Scholes was sent for a shower, Zamora continued to be the main threat to United as EVDS made a sparkling save keeping the visitors in the game before denying him again 10 minutes later.

Clint Dempsey somehow managed to take some lime light of Zamora as his shot from 20 yard just went wide.

All Fulham traffic continued as Dickson Etuhu saw EVDS pluck his header out of the air & long-range effort from Zamora had the Dutchman dive to his right shortly before the half time whistle blew.

A new United side came out for the second half at Craven Cottage after more than likely a ferocious bollocking from SAF.

After his two telling pieces of contribution of 1. heading over the bar & 2 "going over" on his ankle, Berbatov was replaced by Wayne Rooney who sparked United's 10 men into life.

Darren Fletcher got proceedings going as he crossed from the right on 52 minutes which Ronaldo leapt & met with his head steering the ball just over the bar, the Scot also saw a shot from distance saved by Schwarzer.

With some awfully bad individual performances coming from the normally reliable awfully good individuals United fans & players alike must be wondering what the hell is going on as Ronaldo, Evra, Berbatov, Scholes & Ferdinand all had games to forget.

But with all this aside and United at the disadvantage of being down to ten men the Reds poured forward & Schwarzer again kept United out as Ronaldo's header was saved by the Aussie goalkeeper.

Shortly after Schwarzer produced the double save of the season when he blocked JSP's sliding close range stab & from the rebound still managed to block Rooney's follow up shot.

At this point your Editors toes began to curl with anxiety as it was starting to look like "one of those days".

Danny Murphy was replaced by the Ex Shepard, Olivier Dacourt after picking up a freak injury on the sideline after jarring himself with seemingly no one around.
 
Next came the proverbial "door in face" as despite the attacking verve, disadvantage of being down to 10 men (Editor: which I had forgotten about) & maybe the deserving of something from the tie, the cruel world of football took if from United as Zoltan Gera made it 2-0.

With Patrice Evra once again missing a tackle in a central midfield area & miles away from where he should have been (Editor: same as the Liverpool) Andy Johnson used the vacant space left by Evra to provide an assist for Gera who acrobatically finished past EVDS.

Clearly incensed by what was transpiring & more importantly carrying a yellow card, United on the attack saw referee Phil Dowd blow for a free kick and as the ball found Rooney, he threw the ball with some venom petulantly back to where the foul had taken place as down reached for his second yellow card for the United forward.

With Chelsea losing to Tottenham & Liverpool destroying Aston Villa 5-0, the Reds have some soul searching to do, however we must remember the League went to the final day of the season last year.

However, I feel that the international break will benefit us but we now know, we must bounce back forthwith.

Should Ronaldo give someone else a try at Free kicks!!

What's happened to Patrice Evra?

Whats your opinion?.....HAVE YOU'RE SAY BELOW

 MUFCINFO's MAN OF THE MATCH