Red News - 19 mars
I ”Red News” sammanfattar vi dagen som gått och ger er senaste nytt ifrån klubben.
Viktig seger mot Bolton
Insatsen var inte den bästa, men detta var en av säsongens skönaste vinster. Bolton ska ha en eloge, de stod upp riktigt bra, men som så ofta förr får motståndarlaget lämna Old Trafford poänglöst. Noterbart var att Sir Alex satt på läktaren, och att Mike Phelan tränade laget från sidlinjen.
Kommentarer efter matchen:
Sir Alex: “It wasn’t a 100 percent top performance by us today, but we never gave in. It’s the character of this club. It’s a fantastic character. No other club in the country’s got that. We are fantastic when it comes to gritting our teeth and getting something out of a dead situation. We did it again today and full marks to them. The only way I can judge today is that we had five massive games in the last couple of weeks: two games against Marseille, we’ve been to Chelsea and Liverpool, we beat Arsenal in the FA Cup. It’s a hell of a programme and these lads deserve praise for that. The fans were fantastic in the last 20 minutes, they got right behind us. They really were magnificent, they really got us over the line. In actual fact we looked better at that point. The sending-off galvanised us a little bit. Players had to play all over the place. Everyone’s done a shift, worked their socks off and I think we’ve got a deserved win out of it. We were by far the better team, Bolton never presented a problem to us in the second half at all – they had a clear header in the end of course, but apart from that it was just us against them, our attack all the time.”
Nani: “If we want to win the league, we have to win games like that. It was a very important result. I’m pleased for us. We did so well in the final minutes and we won the game. The secret to scoring late goals is that we always play until the last minute. Today was the same. This afternoon the players were fantastic, especially after Jonny was sent off. I think we did very well. Bolton had an opportunity to create more problems for our defence but we always think positively and want to attack. We always try to score. Now we join our national teams so hopefully some of our injured players can recover. We hope that when we come back from the international break all the squad will be ready. We need everybody for these final games.”
Carrick: “We were down to 10 men and up against it. To get the win is a massive lift for us and a huge result. When you’re chasing a game, to go down to 10 men is a blow, but the lads responded well. We kept pushing and believing we’d get the chance to score. Thankfully we did and Berba’s tucked it away. It feels like a huge three points. It would be nice at the end of the season to be champions and look back and say today was a good day. But at this stage it’s just about getting the three points. Arsenal drawing is a bonus but we’re just focussing on ourselves and getting the squad back together in two weeks’ time. At this stage of the season you want to be involved in all the big games. It shows you’re doing something right. We just take the games one at a time. West will be tough. After that there are more big games coming up. We’ll be kept busy.”
Arsenal tappade
Laget från norra London fick bara 2-2 borta mot West Bromwich. Arsenal låg under med 2-0 men lyckades reducera och sedan kvittera, via Arshavin samt van Persie. Det räckte, hur som helst, inte för 3 poäng, och Arsenal är nu 5 pinnar bakom serieledarna United, förvisso med en match till godo. Så här ”twittrade” Piers Morgan efter poängtappet mot WBA, och Almunias bisarra tabbe: Basil Fawlty: "We have a Spanish goalkeeper called Manuel at the moment, he's from near Barcelona. It'd be quicker to train an ape!"
Roligt, minst sagt.
Skador & avstängningar
Park & Owen fanns med på bänken mot Bolton, men det blev inget inhopp för någon utav dem. Annars finns det inget nytt att rapportera om.
Övrigt
U18 spelade 2-2 borta mot Derby. Tom Lawrence & Paul Pogba gjorde målen.
David Gills son, Oliver, fanns med på bänken mot Bolton. Det blev inget inhopp för hans del.
Shakhtar Donetsks Douglas Costa satt uppenbarligen på läktaren när United mötte Bolton. Vad detta innebär får framtiden utvisa. Nick Coppack (skriver för den officiella hemsidan) ”twittrade” detta efter segern idag (lördag): ”Can confirm the Douglas Costa at OT sighting. He was there.”
