It’s never a good game when United lose but, amid disappointment and controversy, punters’ should remember that the first leg of this Carling Cup semi-final was a cracker. Manchester derbies are fast becoming the most hottest clashes in England and that can only be a good thing.
As for this Wednesday: it’s only half-time, we’re one down with 90 minutes to play in front of 75,000 screaming Reds and we’re famous for being the comeback kings of European football. Back United at 1.75 (8/11) to win the match and 1.98 (evens) to reach the final. The Carling Cup, like the Premier League, is our trophy.
Saturday’s 4-0 win over Hull got the defeat out of the players’ systems. Wayne’s four and Rio’s return are the feel good stories which set the Reds up nicely for Wednesday.
They’re calling the last 10 minutes of the first leg the Alamo across town. No wonder; under sustained late bombardment, City looked flimsy, United’s wide men had the beating of their full backs and Vincent Kompany and Micah Richards were lost when Owen and Rooney worked the ball between them. If it wasn’t for Shay Given, United would have won.
If United pick up where they left off, they will get an early break-through. Nobody would bet against Wayne scoring the first goal so have a punt on him but put a small stakes wager on Darren Fletcher too. This is what you might call a “hunch bet” but, although the Scottish dynamo has been quiet of late, he’s a big game player and will drive the Reds on Wednesday.
The Reds will go in ahead at the break before adding more in the second half. It might not be a deluge though as, with one eye on next Sunday’s crucial trip to Arsenal, the manager might withdraw players and get men behind the ball. Back 2-0 at 9.4 (17/2) in the Correct Score market and ManUtd/ManUtd at 2.84 (15/8) for a Half-time/Full-time bet.
Rio was commanding against Hull. He has a score to settle after Craig Bellamy beat him to score for in the league match back in September so you can expect Rio to be up for this one. Gary Neville would relish the chance to put Carlos Tevez in his place and the manager may opt for his experience to nullify Bellamy out wide. It goes against the form, which means you might get a decent price, so back the United clean sheet and Under 2.5 goals at 2.06 (21/20).
We should be going to Wembley with money in our pockets so, with the final against Aston Villa – a team United always beat in Cup competitions – in mind, back the Reds to win the Carling Cup at 3.0 (2/1). That price should be snapped up now as it will narrow after we win on Wednesday.
Man Utd News 24/7
as much as i love Nevs, I scares me to think of him up against Petrov or Bellamy’s pace on the wing! Would rather see Wes or one of the twins at right back. Is Vidic looking like playing does anyone know?
JUST DO IT !
off the topic- what’s that crap about Anderson missing training and acting wierd after being out of the squad on saturday?????
I hope we get two early goals! Tevez has at least made some truthful comments. He has said that City is the right club for him. Couldn’t agree more!
Lads,
Im a bit apprehensive about tonight, without doubt it is going to be a cracking game!
I can see us turning them over big time! Romping home! When the chips are down we lift our game! We are used to such high profile games over the years our experience should kick in!
However this is practicaly Shitys Fa Cup final and they certainly will be up for it! Im not really worried about tevez i could never class him as clinical! If we were facing an Henry or a Zidan or Ronaldo i would be worried! Beleive it or not the only one who worries me in the shity team is bellamy! He has qualities to do something out of nothing! I fear a wonder goal from them out of the blue!
Come on lads!…….
Duncan Edwards Last Words Need To Be Plastered All Round Old Trafford On Wednesday
Wont be easy.united have a habit of doing things the difficult way.want to see rooney on the bench ahead of the big one on sunday and berba and diouf to start
trevor – it’s on tomorrow night..
guys, is é game tonite or tmr nite? i tot it’s suppose to be tmr nite?
not worried about tevez
not worried about bellamy
united will have all the ball and most of the chances
but that shay given is unbeatable at times.
it scares the shit out of me.
he plays especially well when he is under siege eg. ireland v germany 1-1 a couple of years back and all newcastle matches since the late bobby robson was sacked by the class act that is newcastle.
we should still do it. just scared that given could save city on his own (again)
The game is most definitely tomorrow night.
The game is tomorrow and I agree with AIG. Lets start with Berba and Diof or Berba and Owen. If the news about Ando are true, then we will probably see Carrick and Fletcher starting.
Neville vs bellamy ?
HELL NO !!!
@come off it mate
Yeah Given is something else thats for sure, The Derby we won 4-3 bellamy was unstopable that day. Looking at them all he for me is the one who could hurt us.
Face it, we will have the majority of possession and very vunerable to the counter attack!…Bellamy is quick and could hurt!…
When i am off for lunch i am going to put 10 quid on us to win 3-1…. bring it on!
@RED SAM
I think nev could cope, specialy as the first thng he would do is kick him hart in the nuts when the ref is not looking!…Would be a joy to see!~
Would accept a red card for that! That would be worth letting shity go to the finals, although would have to be both bellamy and tevez that get it though! Im not fussed who gets done first! hahaha
I agree that Given is a terrific goalie, but we made it kind of easy for him last Tuesday. Most of the shots were going straight at him. We have to make it tougher for him.
bid for chris smalling has been accepted. Why hasn’t kenyan-canadian red posted the link yet?
i reckon we should put in a cheeky bid, just about enough to buy out his contract, for given if he only has a couple of years left on his contract and we are still looking for a replacement for edwin.
i have a lot of respect for the man, probably the irish blood in me more than anything else
straight after the first leg i put a tenner on down the local bookies. 2-0 for the second leg. i stand by that. (to us, obviously)
Agree ghtt
“GET STUCK IN THE LADS”
for wednesday.
@sppibsihmkcrkg
Lol. So, we bought Smalling?
I find all the top goal keeprs are at their best in the final stages of their carrier..
Do feel dissapointed that we let schmichel go when we did…. The press are truly to blaim, they ahve a build them up knock them down mentality! Some players get effected some dont!
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/397520034?-11193
Obsessed much.
probably a lot of truth in that trevor
calamity james only started playing well when he was hitting forty
I dont fear shitty at all.last time at the theatre of Dreams we gifted them free goals after overdominating play.last week at the wastelands we thoroughly suffocated them.the ref rescued their pride with a penalty (foul outside the box) & a non existent corner (the ball came off their players body). If we get unbiased competent officiating then shitty will have nothing but shit on their faces to take back to wastelands.they are free to go to Wembley as Villa’s supporters but we aint gonna allow them to use Old Trafford as a stepping stone to break their 34-year jinx! I know all players are up for it to undo the injustice that the ref perpetuated.i for one am willing to have RED NEVILLE step into the fray & teach the cunt twatez a lesson or two & then sub him afterwards in the second half with Raf. Wazza will dismantle their overhyped ego & prove SAF’s fact that “they are a small club with a small mentality” It’s one thing to be knocked out of the F A cup by dirty Leeds (a competition we didnt win last season) & something else to permit the money-grabbing backstabbing Argie &egoistic Bellamy to elavate the already inflated egos of our jealous neighbours.
@trevor
Nothing more we could have done about Schmikes. It was his decision unfortunately. It’s a pity that a few years later he decided that he could still play in England!
I agree about goalkeepers being better when they get older. Especially keepers like VDS who take care of themselves and stay in great shape.
thanks guys for cfm game schedule. é defence has to be real tight tmr, beware of counter attack from è 2 shortie in shit blue. if we can prevent them from scoring, confident we’ll bang in a couple past given. but if we to bloody lose a goal, it’s going to be tough. we havent been very convincing crawling from a goal down this season.
not defo yet coz it’s not direct from fulham or united but sky sources so sounds good. Remember reading in manchester evening news yesterday that fergie n hodgson were seen in city centre after the game on saturday so he’s probably had a word then.
Goos job with the Smalling transfer. We could use some back up. Is he ready for the first team though?
@willierednut
That’s the one time I agree with him. They are definitely made for each other!
Your probaly rite costas lol.
Denying Shity a trip to Wembley means more than winninng the actual cup.
Come on lads, we could do with a repeat of the performance in the second half at last darby at OT (at least Foster will not be playing).
Can’t say I saw the Smalling transfer happening (providing it does go through which seems fairly likely with a bid accepted), should be interesting haven’t seen a great deal of him. Anyone seen enough of him to give any thoughts?
Villa, ‘ a team we always beat in cup competitions’??? Oh dear me…What about the FA Cup Final of 1957? Or the League Cup Final of 1994? Nothing like counting chickens…
Still, ‘Let’s get stuck in lads’
Given is shit
Can’t organise a defence to save his life
Boumsong, Lescott, Toure, Bassong, Distin, Bramble
all looked absolutely terrible in front of him, all known as (reasonably) solid defenders
Smalling should be interesting, but when I’m alone in bed tonight i’m probably going to be thinking of the ridiculous rumour that Buffon is going to finally leave Juve after their disastrous campaign and shack up with us
not gonna happen but if it did eh
Given is a good goalie,yes, but just like Little Mickey exposed him last time out after all his heroics someone else will do the job this time round. I cant bet against Wazza unwinding him with a brace (he’s in a goal-scoring form & definetely in the mood to kick some ass)
Giles Oakley
Hi. Well, in fairness, we have got the best of them in every FA cup tie we have met over the last 15 years. The record in total, is 10 wins in 12.
But, they have 4 wins in 6 games in League cup games. One of them was the final in 94. I always wondered why Les Sealey started that game.
@ sppibsihmkcrkg ( hope i got it right today)
about your previous post about the kenyan_canadian red guy, if you haven”t spotted it, all his links are from the same site something like nzurisana i think.the guy is very dumb he pastes the stories from other websites and even from RoM
and gives the links to the same posts we are commenting on !!
@ brio the red
why did you drop the word kenyan from your name ? did you get carried away by cantona 7 “joke” ??
Hi Costas. Yes I remember that Villa final defeat all too well. United just didn’t seem up for it, apart from Sparky Hughes who scored our goal.I thought it was a very odd attitude as a win would have given us the chance for a domestic Treble for the first time in the club’s history. I’m glad Fergie is very belatedly seeing the value in winning the Lge Cup.
Not getting too excited about the Smalling bid until he signs. Wenger’s intrest in him is widely known and the fact that we have had a bid accepted might trigger him to bid too. Ramsey anyone? Hoping he signs though.
off topic…. hey guys who is this Smalling we have bid for… anyone seen him play?
Giles Oakley
I think that at the time we were going through a wobble, like the one we went through last April. We never showed up for the final despite naming our best team(apart from the goalkeeper), we lost to Blackburn and we almost lost to Oldham in the FA cup(Hughes to the rescue). In hindsight, it was a great opportunity to complete the domestic treble, but thankfully we didn’t fall apart after that dip in form.
Ramsey could look at the Arsenal academy and think of Fabregas and “wow, think of how great I could be.” Looking at the bunch of defenders that have come through the ranks at Arsenal, their best bet is going to be that Smalling thinks “fuck me, they really need me here.”
He’s a very tall young centre-back, looked good against Chelsea, scored an own-goal but nothing he could’ve done about it.
I wouldn’t put myself forward as a great judge of young defenders but he seems highly-regarded.
Tony Starks-
Smalling is a young defender from Fulham.. He played quite well against Chelsea, and was really unfortunate to get an owngoal.. He’s tall too, 6’5..
Last i heard, Fulham accepted our £7mil bid for him.
Anybody got any more news on that?
anybody know about the “punishment” Rio may face with regards to teaching Fagan a lesson? and that Canadian-Kenyan Red dude is fucking hilarious !!!
I think we should play Brown on the right back with Ferdinand in the centre. That could be good for us.
could not agree with you more kel
off topic though i was checking a certain “top 10 most improved players”
and valencia happened to be on the list and this is what the author had to say………
“10. Antonio Valencia (Manchester United) – A popular figure at Wigan Athletic, Valencia merits inclusion by virtue of his vastly improved goals return, which never looked much like extending beyond a handful until his move to Old Trafford. He might not replace Cristiano Ronaldo, but he could replace Wayne Rooney in the aiding and abetting role as the England striker replaces the Portuguese as United’s main man. If that makes any sense. ”
mmmmh me thinks so…
red sam, i was being sarcastic when i posted about kenyan canadian mate. It’s a personality trait of mine! Apparently we’re in talks wi smallings agent now.
Costas, you’re right about that wobble in ’94, which really only ended with that last minute volley of Hughes against Oldham in the semi at Wembley,another match I was lucky enough to be at. I can still hear the ‘thwack’ of Hughes’ boot hitting the ball, and the rattling sound of the net as the ball crashed into it at 100 miles an hour! At that point I really ‘knew’ United were going to do the Double.
On Villa, we also had a fantastic record against them in the league…till this season. Still, it’s all a bit premature, we still gotta beat citeh.
sppibsihmkcrkg ( my God !!)
smalling deal is one that doesn”t excite me at all….reason i thought we should be going for young creative midfielders not defenders for crying out loud, we let ramsey slip through our fingers and we should compansate for that.
smalling is a very smart and promising lad but don’t we have enough young defenders in our squad cathcart, c.evans, j. evans,gill ? or will he be signed because of the current first teamers situation (vidic injury/unsettled wife rio injuries) ?
am not complaining but this one is worth an explanation.
@ Giles Oakley
hi. always my pleasure to have you here how is your health ? hope you are doing okay.
@Your Dad
Rumour is he is in Manchester discussing personal terms
Giles Oakley
Personally, I feel like this. If we knock out City, the final will be an even affair. If, God forbid, City get past us, then they will win it. Don’t want to underestimate Villa, but City will have the greater motivation in that final. So in a way, on Wednesday, it’s City’s final.
it seems smalling deal has more than meets the eye check this out…love the last lines from that post considering its an arsenal blog http://gunnerblog.com/?p=2175 it that is it, then i will change my thoughts sign smallling !!!
@RED SAM
Of those mentioned I think only J.Evans is guaranteed as United quality. Rio is at the wrong end of the age scale and his Injuries are worrying and we may have to do what Spurs do with King and use him carefully to get the best out of him. Vidic I think is committed to the team and its just Paper Talk to unsettle the club BUT he isn’t Ryan Giggs so it would be foolish to rely on him staying. O’Shea is a good general backup but he isn’t someone you want to play CB long term and while it may be the chop and changing Brown has looked a bit off the pace.
All in all it can’t be bad getting an up and coming player of quality
can anyone guess how next scotts post will be ?? me am going for…
“welcome smalling”
“RoM reads”
“rooney: seedorf is the toughest i’ve played against”
just for fun
RED SAM
I think he might also make a topic about Tevez saying that City is the club for him.
@ wackey
“O’Shea is a good general backup but he isn’t someone you want to play CB”
that is what bothers me about sheasy we rely on him when our back four is shakey, but then we see he aint good enough for a CB.plus don’t he is getting older…….i don’t want to sound as if am complaining but then……..
Smiles….1994 Hughes Volley against oldham
Can remember the nail biting finish, the fear. then the big man comes up with the goods as he so often did!
In my books that man will always be a legend!
This potential new signing might be for a couple of reasons. I have herd about new rule changes being imposted regarding forgien players.
Snapping up an English Centre Half with bags of Potential might be a sensible thing to do!
Fergie & his team do not sign players without doing their homework, there are no better team to trust!
if he is signed then he is or will be good enough!
i hope rio is ok to start then wes can play right back , im worried that after the 1st leg they will realise they can put that cunt bellamy up against 1 of the twins and he can have the beating of either of them , hes a sly cunt , there positional play needs some work which only comes with experiance , but they can match him for pace and work rate but if nev plays he will get stripped for pace where as wes has the know how and the athletisism to deal with the little hunchback bastard bellamy , i think the score line is a blessing in disguise as if they needed to win at ot they would have to go for it as with the scoreline like it is they will sit back .
Say what you like but the build-up before the citeh games this season has been fantastic and I welcome the increased rivalry and “hostility” this season. No I don’t condone violence but hopefully you know what I mean there. I cannot wait for the game tomorrow as I think the atmosphere will be unlike anything we’ve had at OT for sometime now. Especially if we score first.
Team:
VdS, Brown, Evans, Rio, Evra, Fletch, Carrick, Valencia (Nani did play well though on Saturday), Rooney, Owen, Giggs.
Nani, Berbatov, Diouf, Scholes, Nev and Ando on bench….
Prediction: 4-2 to Utd….
I have seen Smalling play about twice and he looked alright, very composed for a youngster
Good signing I think if it goes through, Arsene Wenger is a fantastic judge of talent and so is Sir Alex so if we’re fighting it out for this kid he must have something…
If we play like we palyed the last 15 minutes at Wastelands we should have no problem going through.
If we play like we played the second half at the beginning of the season at OT, we will slaughter them.
Hi Red Sam, nice of you to ask. I’m slowly recovering from my ultra-heavy doses of radiation, and one by one the side effects are improving, which is a huge relief. The slowest to get better is the all-round knackered-ness, but that always takes time apparently. It’s a shame as I had wanted to tell the tale of ‘The Redemption of Eric Cantona’ (as promised last October…)to mark the 15th anniversary of the Kung-fu kick at Palace – which was yesterday. I will get round to it eventually, when the poor old brain is functioning a bit better. Of course that story has a happy ending with Eric’s volley against the dippers at Wembley in ’96 ( again I had a perfect view), which is another of my all-time favourite goals, along with Hughsey’s in ’94.
I agree with you Trevor, Hughsey will always be a legend to me, too. One of the good things about him being sacked by citeh is one can begin to enjoy those great memories a bit more again.
off topic (slightly) call me a prick or whatever but i think if city fans start doing their munich thing i think all the united fans should start making machine gun gestures towards adebayor. see what they think about that when their own team is victim to tragedy and others mock them
@strik3rr
Your rite that is sick, no need to stoop to their level.