To mark the 10th anniversary of RoM, there will be several articles remembering some of the best moments for Manchester United fans over the past decade. Dale O’Donnell has spoken about one of his favourite memories. has spoken about one of his favourite memories.
Dimitar Berbatov has been described as many things throughout his career, but above all he oozed class. The Bulgarian was like poetry in motion. He controlled everything as though his boots made of velcro and made football look effortless.
However, Berbatov’s greatest individual moment in a Manchester United shirt saw him score an absolutely stunning hattrick against Liverpool. It was the first hattrick scored by a United player against the scousers in 64 years and there haven’t been any since.
The hattrick came after his teammates contrived to throw away the twogoal advantage he had initially secured. Two brilliant headers and a finish that has gone down in United’s history.
It all started with a Nani cross which Berbatov controlled brilliantly before conducting an over-head kick that beat Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina.
This can only be described as a personal piece of magic and one of many reasons us Reds should never forget Berba.
In 2008 we won the double of Premier League (our 10th!) and UEFA Champions League, with Cristiano Ronaldo bagging 42 goals en route to winning both trophies.
We wrapped up the league title against Wigan away, with Ronnie’s 31st league goal of the season and Ryan Giggs’ late strike on the day he equalled Sir Bobby Charlton’s appearance record for the club.
Even though the game was at Wigan’s JJB Stadium, every stand seemed to have as many United fans as Wigan fans. The whole away stand behind the goal in which Giggs scored his goal was full and bouncing for the whole 90 minutes while my stand to the right of it was full of Reds too.
When Ronaldo tucked away his penalty, myself and my dad thought we’d be a bit respectful by not celebrating the goal too loudly as I was only 14 and he wanted to avoid any trouble. But as the ball crossed the line and the net rippled, every fan surrounding us jumped up in ecstasy with their hooded jumpers suddenly unzipped and Manchester United shirts on show.
It was surreal to see and made the rest of the game much more comfortable. Myself, my dad and fellow Reds belting out as many songs as we could (it was also the first time I was allowed to swear in front of my dad without repercussions) and celebrating a 17th league title in the club’s history.
The players noticed us too during the celebrations, as Rio and Nani came over to the home stand we were in and saluted us for supporting despite not being in the away stand. While it isn’t one of more spectacular games, it’s one I will remember for a long time.
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