Saturday, October 29, 2005

Boro demolish deplorable United

Middlesborough have today demolished Man United at the Riverside 4-1. The game sparked into to life straight away when Edwin Van der Sar's mistake allowed Boro their opener.Mendieta's whipped shot had plenty of power behind it, but it should still have been easily gathered by the Dutch international. United did have chances at the other end - with John O'Shea going closest - but their lethargy at the back meant it was no surprise when Boro's second goal arrived on 25 minutes. Ferdinand hesitated as Mendieta's long ball bounced in the area, and Hasselbaink muscled him off the ball before blasting home a shot that Van der Sar could not keep out of the net.



United's chances of a come back were affectivley put to an end when just before the half-time interval when Parnaby ran on to Hasselbaink's ball into the box but was hauled back by Richardson and after consulting his assistant, referee Alan Wiley pointed to the spot. A sustained protest by Ferdinand and Van der Sar failed to change the official's mind, and after some delay, Yakubu stepped up to coolly roll the ball home. Yakubu made good progress down the left flank and pulled the ball back for Mendieta, who found the net with a first-time shot for his second and his side's fourth. Ronaldo did head home a consolation deep in injury time for United - their 1,000th Premiership goal - but by then the home fans had long been celebrating a famous victory. Final score: Middlesborough 4-1 Man United.

To be perfectly honest I have never seen a worse performance from a Man United team before. Middlesborough did play well but they weren't anything special because most of it was down to a crap United performance. The win for Boro lifts them to 10th whilst the defeat for United drops them down to 6th place in the table.