The Red Devils paid the perfect tribute to Sir Alex with a crushing 3-0 victory over Portsmouth! Monday sees the great man celebrate 20 years at the helm of this great club and victory on Saturday felt as sweet as ever!
Louis Saha (pen), Ronaldo and believe it or not Vidic were amongst the scorers as United piled on the pressure on Chelski by going three points clear at the top!
I had predicted a tough encounter given Pompey’s recent form, but it was anything but! We rather eased to a win with the game effectively over in 10 minutes of the start! Louis Saha scored the first from the sport after Stefanovic had tripped Rooney in the box. It took minutes for our second with another give-away, this time by O’Brien on Saha.
Ronaldo curled in a fantastic free-kick, doublind our advantage and effectively sealing the tie. From then on, we continued to pile on the pressue with attack after attack on their goal but David James was in some form to deny us at every attempt.
Gary Neville would have scored a rare goal, had it not been for James who denied him on no less than three separate occasions. Messrs Rooney and Scholes had great games and although we continued to press, the goal did not come until mid-way second half when Vidic rose to head a Neville cross.
To Pompey’s credit, they had a handful of good opportunites but were thwarted by our man in goal Van der Sar who made some great saves, especially to keep out Mathew Taylor’s piledriver!
So, normal service resumed and we three clear at the top awaiting Chelski’s not-so-easy trip to the White Hart Lane. Here’s hoping…
Other Reports: BBC, Soccernet.