fa premiership, Matchday 31
Stadium of Light, Sunderland, 15.00pm GMT, Saturday 11th April 2009.
Attendance: 45,408

Three points, and I don't care, as with another match came another below par performance, but most importantly another winning goal for a 17 year old Italian that could prove priceless in the race for the Premiership title.

With Liverpool beating Blackburn Rovers in the early game & claiming top spot, it was United's prerogative to reclimb to the summit of the Premiership with game rapidly running out.

SAF welcomed back injury victims Dimitar Berbatov, Anderson who both were involved in the game but Evra, Ronaldo & EVDS were all rested with Porto in mind giving Ben Foster his 2nd Premier League start (Editor: who did he play against in his 1st??).

Sunderland gave United an early scare when the home side created the first real chance of the game after Edwards crossed from the right & Kenwyne Jones surprisingly found the ball at his feet, unable to react quickly enough the ball eventually sailed over the bar after a flurry of attempts & blocks from both teams.

After United had won a corner at the other end, Rooney promptly whipped in a corner before Nemanja Vidic had a powerful header cleared off the line by Collins, in a panicky pinball session in the Sunderland penalty area, Berbatov steered a ball back into the danger zone which Carlos Tevez got in the way off, before the Serbian attempted an acrobatic Denis Law overhead type kick which went wide.

With Rooney enjoying success on the left of midfield he was given space after being fed by Berbatov after what was arguably the only telling piece of a disappointing game from the Bulgarian, albeit he was only returning from injury, however after good play by Berbatov, Rooney cutting in from the left crossed for Paul Scholes who glanced a looping header past Craig Gordon for 1-0 & the Ginger Ninja's 98th League goal.

A noticeable feature about United's defence over the last few weeks had been the opportunity opponents seem to be in receipt of when crossing into the United penalty area, lack of tracking back by Portuguese wingers, slow fullbacks & indeed a loss of form of Patrice Evra have contributed to many cross's reaching the danger zone, a danger zone usually marshaled by Vidic & Ferdinand, with both either, injured, banned, or other aka Gary Neville being given that thankless task of filling the gap, the Reds have looked vulnerable on a grand scale.

A case to point was when Ex Red & Sunderland Captain Phil Bardsley was allowed two crossing attempts, the second culminating in a close range Davenport half shot, which instead of going wide could has nestled in the back of the net.

Sunderland continued to press for an equalizer & were a whisker away when Ban Foster saved well from a Djibril Cisse powerful uplifting drive.

Hanging on to a slender lead at a time when your team appears to be struggling for form is difficult to cope with at the best of times & even when your usually rock solid players aren't at the races, you know there's something wrong as Edwards turned Vidic inside out when JOS was caught out of position & Vidic had to fill in at right back, Edwards perilous cross was then met by Jonny Evans who lucky enough for the Ex Sunderland loanee saw his deflected ball smash into the United post, whilst evading every Sunderland player on the way back out to a thankful JSP, who cleared up the pitch.

JSP then tried to lift United after Wayne Rooney fed the South Korean & like an unsuccessful Nuclear Weapon Satellite Launch guided his missile of a shot well over the bar.

In the second half United went close with Wayne Rooney when the forward struck a shot just wide of Craig Gordon, but Sunderland finally go their deserved equalizer as once again United were punished for what was we mentioned earlier.

With Gary Neville closely marking his man, he was then suddenly given the job of two men as JSP & Berbatov failed to make any sort of tackle on Tainio, desperately trying to block the cross which should really never have taken place at all, the ball was sent into the United penalty box & after a major flap from Ben Foster, some ball watching from Jonny Evans, "same shit different day" came next as once again United were punished to the max when a thankful Kenwyne Jones bundled his initial header over the line.

United pushed forward & went close again when Carrick & Tevez combined to tee up Scholes who was inches away from his 99th goal as his rasping shot went wide of Browns post.

More slack defending from Vidic saw Cisse given an opportunity when  the French striker produced overhead kick which struck the side netting.

SAF then subbed Berbatov after the Striker looked to have re injured his ankle, as the savior of the Aston Villa game, 17 year old Striker Federico Macheda was introduced.

With Rooney looking the most likely candidate as he did on a regular basis to create or score, a blocked shot from the White Pele fell back into the possession of United & with Michael Carrick finding himself in space on the edge of the box, the United midfielder let rip with shot which, guess who, with his first touch of the game steered the shot into the net, for his 2nd goal in as many appearances.

So top again & arguably a better performance than last week, with Scholes, & Rooney only a whisker away from adding to United's tally which would have situated this game in a truly different light, the cold hard facts are this.....

7 games left, Rio, Wes & Rafael back next week & United still can only improve, lets look at the bright side & get behind our team

MUFC THE RELIGION!!!

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