Aston Villa 0 - 0 Manchester United - Martin O'Neill's Verdict

I was a bit disappointed Manchester United didn't have this game sewn up by half time. The first 45 minutes saw them miss 3 good chances and end the half having had 57% of the posession. In the first 15 minutes of the second half Villa had a bright spell and Agbonlahor could have scored for them. Wayne Rooney, who just a month ago couldn't miss a goal if he tried has now gone 35 days without scoring. He missed an absolutely golden chance towards the end. Carrick played a high ball into the area and Rooney watched it come over his shoulder and then, rather than smashing it into the roof of the net on the volley as he normally would, he allowed the ball to bounce and then crashed his shot high into the crowd, the ball had snow on it when it finally came down.

Vidic had a lucky escape in my opinion when he fouled Agbonlahor. He grabbed the England mans shirt and was pulling him back for a good 15 metres before finally going down in the area. I think the ref bottled it to be honest because if he granted a free kick there was no question Vidic would have been off. So there it was, 0-0, which meant the top 5 teams in the Premier league failed to score a goal between them.

Martin O'Neill said of the match : "I thought it was important to battle very strongly and we did that well. We could have nicked it at the end but we also had moments to endure ourselves. Overall, it was a very hard-fought draw. We were spirited and resilient. The players are doing splendidly and putting a big effort into the games. The last two matches have pitted us against the very, very best. United won't be too far away at the end of the season. They have so much movement, such creativity and good players. It was a great effort against them and I am so pleased with my players. They put a big effort into the match and if we had been beaten it wouldn't have been through a lack of effort." On the subject of the tussle between Agbonlahor and Vidic on the hour mark, O'Neill added: "It was a penalty. You can see it back and consider if it was inside the box or outside the box. But it wasn't just that. The decision is a massive one because even if it is outside the box, it's a foul. And the player, having committed the foul and as the last man, has to be sent off. The referee chose not to give it. I thought it was too big for him. I thought the consequence of the decision was too big for him. It was a major moment. He had a hold of Gabby throughout the move. I can understand the referee being hesitant about giving the penalty but not about giving the foul. It was a goalscoring opportunity and the consequence should have been Vidic being sent off.".....Back To Home Page...

Manchester United Trivia - The More We All Know The Better

I've been rummaging through my United books again.
I have all the stats books and the facts and figures of
this, that and the other, I follow it all.

Who scored six goals in one game for us on 7th Feb 1970 in an
8-2 win over Northampton Town in the FA Cup 5th Round ?
That's easy, George Best, but he's not alone. I thought Georgie
was the only one, but on 25th Sep 1911, whilst playing in the
Charity Shield against Swindon at Stamford Bridge, Harold Halse
also scored six !!

Five in a game is easy. 4th Mar 1995 in the FA Premiership, playing
Ipswich Town in a 9-0 victory Mr Andrew Cole scored 5 ! Scoring 5
in one game and winning 9-0 are both Premiership records too by
the way. But once again, he's not alone. On 12th Feb 1949, in the FA
Cup 5th round versus Yeovil Town, Jack Rowley scored five too !!

The scoring of 4 goals in a game is far too easy, I mean 54 people have
done that for goodness sake, boring !! Well ... not if you bang them all
in within 12 minutes of coming off the bench ! As 20legend did. He
bagged his 4 and United scored a further four for an 8-1 away win at
Forest, the fastest four goals ever scored and the record win in the
Premiership, away from home !! Another game where they set two
records, that must be a record too, surely, or am I being greedy here ?

Our top five record victories, every fan should know this if they wish
to appear genuine !

10-0 v Anderlecht, EC Cup Prelim 2nd leg, 26 Sep 56 at Maine Road in
front of 40,000.
10-1 v Wolves, Division 2, 15 Oct 1892 at North Road in front of 4,000.
9-0 v Walsall, Division 2, 3 Apr 1895 at Bank Street in front of 6,000.
9-0 v Darwen, Division 2, 24 Dec 1898 at Bank Street in front of 2,000.
9-0 v Ipswich, FA Premiership, 4 Mar 1995 at Old Trafford in front of
43,806.

And don't you forget it - Grrrrrrrrrrrr ... !!

Now I'm always fair, so if we have the top 5 victories, then yes, you got
it, we better have the top 5 defeats ... and the 5th one is a nightmare !!
So, ahem, to be fair, here we go ...

0-7 v Blackburn, Division 1, 10 Apr 1926 at Ewood Park in front of 15,870.
0-7 v Villa, Division 1, 27 Dec 1930 at Villa Park in front of 32,505.
0-7 v Wolves, Division 2, 26 Dec 1931 at Molineux in front of 37,207.
1-7 v Stoke, Division 2, 7 Jan 1893 at the Victoria Ground in front of 10,000.
1-7 v Liverpool (Aarrgghhhhhhhhh !!), 12 Oct 1895 at Anfailed in front of 7,000.

So, there we go, all is fair here.

July is the only month where United have never played a competitive
game. I would have said June too ... but no, apparently not. On 6 Jun
1965 in the NEP Stedion, we played Ferencvaros in the Fairs Cup Semi
Final play off and lost 1-0. Then on 16 Jun 1965 in the NEP Stedion, we
played Ferencvaros again in the 2nd leg of the match (both legs away
from home ?) and we lost 2-1, both with crowds of 60,000. My advice
- don't play in June, we've never won or drawn a game !! Played 2,
lost 2, for 1 against 3.


April is our busiest month since United were born. We've played 680
times winning 320, drawing 164 with 196 defeats. We scored 1126
times and let in 804. Pretty good huh ? I could give you the figures for
every month but you would never come back it would be so boring. I'll
tell you that overall, we have played a grand total of 5049 games winning
2424 times and drawing 1214 with 1411 defeats. We scored 8755 and
let in 6334.

Home and away league doubles are always satisfying, especially
against the Bindippers.

We've done the double over the Scousers a total of ten times !! But it
gets better, we can rub it in real bad now. Five of the ten have come
in the 16 years since the birth of the Premier League but wait !!! It
gets better ... 3 have come in the last 4 years and four have come in
the last 6 years !!! Oh yes Scouser, we got your boys whooped pretty
bad !!

What about the all-time top substitute ? He came off the bench 84
times in the Prem and scored 16 times. He also came on 15 times in the
FA Cup for 3 goals. In the League Cup 3 times and 1 goal. Check this
out !! In the Champions League, 45 times and 8 goals !! Giving a grand
total of 150 appearances as sub for 28 goals, one of which arrived with
a rather famous phrase .....AND SOLSKJAER HAS WON IT !!!! Enough
said, Ole a real legend !!

The top scorers in Europe surprised me ! Well, RVN top of the list is no
surprise on 38 goals. But two of Sir Matts guys are still there. One in
second still ... Denis Law with 28 !! Giggsy in 3rd on 25 with Scholes two
back on 23 and Bobby Charlton still fifth on 22.

Top scorers in the Premiership has really closed up now with 5 goals
covering the top 5. We now have joint leaders on 96, Giggs and Scholes
again. Third is RVN on 95, two back to Cole on 93 and a further 2 more
back is ........... Ole Gunnar !!! The Slave is 25 further back, but I think
he is capable of closing that gap quite a bit before joining City for £600
trillion next season !!

We have 451 wins by a score of 1-0. 381 at 2-0 and 234 for 3-0. 106
times we have scraped home 4-0 and 60 times by 5-0. 6-0 is a mere 19
ocassions with 8 at 7-0, 1 at 8-0, and surprisingly 9-0 three times with
a single 10-0.

2-1 victories come in at 385, 3-1 is 254, 4-1 is 117 and 5-1 57 times, uh ?
Then there are 26 6-1 wins with 7 at 7-1, 2 more at 8-1 and a nice 10-1.

What about 3-2 ? 159, 4-2 is 60 and 5-2 has turned up 31 times. 6-2 is
rare, surely, well 13 times for us 7-2 on 5 days and 8-2 just the once !

Conceding 3 goals and winning is possible. 20 times we did it 4-3, 5-3 is
14 ocassions including being 3-0 down at HT and winning 5-3 v Spurs.
We also have 4 wins of 6-3.

How about conceding 4 goals and winning ? Well, we can do that too.......
5-4, 6-4 and 8-4 once each. Surely no one has ever conceded 5 and won ?
We did, v Chelsea in one of the all time great matches.

I'll maybe cover that in my trivia rush. Now be sure to memorise all this
as I WILL be asking questions Muahahahaha .......