Old Trafford...only more nightmares for us!

I have never really enjoyed going to Old Trafford. Maybe it is because I loathe everything the club stands for and hate giving them my money, maybe it is because I loathe all the glory hunting fans who attach themselves to the club or maybe it is just because we rarely seem to score there let alone win.
Despite all this though I decided to make the trip again for this FA Cup quarter final tie mostly because I had managed to get a ticket for Emerson for what would be his first visit to the 'Theatre Of (Bad) Dreams...more then most United fans then!
The trip down was livened up by a clown in a silver Astra who overtook us in the roadworks section of the A1 between Leeming Bar and Dishforth, giving the 'wanker' sign as he went past. He then slowed down to allow us to pass before speeding up again and giving us more hand gestures! Nice! Perhaps it was because of the Arsenal scarf in the back window or the fact that Emerson was wearing his yellow away top or perhaps he had just read one of my blogs...Anyway this continued all the way onto the M62 until he suddenly disappeared, presumably up his own backside, somewhere just past Leeds.
On entering Manchester we decided to park at the Lowry Mill Retail Centre where you get 4 hours free parking if you buy something in the Mall. So Burger King it was then, and much better then paying £10 to a spiv in a yellow jacket to park in a company car park that he probably has no right to charge you for in the first place...



Lowry Mill, free parking if you buy a burger!

 Emerson always likes to get in the ground early, so after he insisted on stroking a police horse, we entered the away section, East Stand Tier 2 Block E334, more then an hour before kick off. The atmosphere in the concourse area was building up nicely and Emerson was soon jumping up and down singing along to the Samir Nasri song and the song about Tottenham going to Rome to see the Pope. I was just glad he didn't ask me what it was all about!
We went up to our seats and were pleased to see the view was very good, far better then in the lower corner where I have always been in the past. Soon the away section began filling up and the atmopshere was clearly going to be something special with Emerson particularly enjoying the song about winning the league at Old Trafford.

View for our seats

Now I do not usually get nervous before a game, I have been to far too many for all that, but I was certainly feeling apprehensive as the teams came out. Maybe it was just the memory of my last cup visit here, a 4-0 FA Cup defeat three years ago. Emerson was feeling optimistic though and boldly predicted a 2-1 win with Nasri scoring the winner...oh the innocence of youth!
United's tactics were clear from the start, how else can you play when you pick seven, yes seven, defenders in your starting team? We dominated the early possession without ever really looking like scoring while all they did was hit a long ball towards Hernandez or one of the Di Silva twins. Very 1980's Wimbledon. They were so content with defending that even Rooney, apparently the best English striker we have, was playing as a third (or was it fourth?) centre back at times. No wonder the United 'faithful' were so quiet...
Inevitably though they scored in their first real attack. Almunia saved from the little P(rick) and one of the Di Silva twins tapped home from about three yards, although judging by his celebration you would have thought he scored a 35 yard screamer...
We continued to dominate proceedings after that but the nearest we came to scoring before the break was when RvP brought a fine save from fellow countryman Van der Saar and Koscienly then headed the resulting corner against the bar.
Half time was brought to life by a rendition or two from the United supporters choir, the first time anyone supporting United had been heard singing all day, but we soon drowned them out with another burst of the winning the league at Old Trafford song. Just a shame it was nine years ago...
The second half saw Valencia come on for his first appearance since breaking his leg in September and even I applauded his arrival, not least as it meant Fergie was now surely looking to attack. But we should have been level straight from the restart as VdS twice denied Koscienly in the same attack, the second of which was a truly world class save.
But our hopes for a better second half were short lived as they went straight up the other end to double their lead. I was not exactly sure how it came about as it was at the far end, but my initial reaction was that we should have defended better before Rooney headed home for his 100th goal against Arsenal or something.
Now we usually struggle to score one at Old Trafford so the chances of getting two seemed remote to say the least but we gave it a go. In fact only some more top keeping from VdS prevented us getting back into it and made us wonder why every single opposition keeper plays a man of the match performance against us? Foster at Wembley, Maginot last week and now VdS...



Van der Saar man of the match

 Emerson then took a break from his singing to ask me who our No. 2 was. 'Abu Diaby,' I replied. 'Well he is useless we should take him off...'
Then, soon after, he asked me who the No.7 was who had just come on. 'Tomas Rosicky,' I replied. 'He is useless as well, why did we bring him on?' Maybe he is not so innocent after all then...
The highlight of the second half though was the return of Aaron Ramsey who, just like Valencia, was returning from a broken leg. It was certainly great to see him back but it made our lack of variety even more obvious. Wilshere, Nasri, Ramsey, Fabregas...all great players but they essentially do the same job. Then when Scholes came on for them in the closing stages it was clear what we were missing. He proceeded to kick everyone in a yellow shirt but amazingly got away with just a single yellow card when he could easily have got three or four...but we could certainly do with a bit of that steel in our midfield.
The day was then made even worse when Djourou went down injured in the closing stages, a dislocated shoulder apparently, to leave us down to ten men for the remaining few minutes as we had already used all three substitutes. But rather then get down about it we just started a five minute rendition of the winning the league at Old Trafford song before the United fans finally came to life at the end. Yes we had certainly forgotton that they were here...



Beaten but still showing his colours

 After the support we had given the boys it was slightly disappointing to see only one or two come over and acknowledge us at the end, so well done to Nasri, Wilshere and Emmanuel Eboue who hadn't even got on, but where were the rest of them??
I thought Emerson would be disappointed we had lost but he seemed in good spirits.'It was a good match,' he said 'We played well,' before going out into the Manchester night singing 'We love you Arsenal we do...'
The journey home was far duller with no twat in an Astra to amuse us and we arrived back in Barton just in time to see the highlights on ITV, at least that was what we thought until we realised there were actually no highlights on! So perhaps there is a God after all...