The Red Devil Bloggin' Company

AC Who?

Mar 10

Posted by red devil in Football | No Comments

Wayne scores first goalAC Milan came to Old Trafford on the back of a 3-2 home defeat by Manchester United in the first leg and threatened to make amends, for about 1 minute. After a period of United attack, Wayne Rooney, with his head, again, scored the opener in the 13th minute and then added a second before half time to put the match that bridge too far for an attackless AC Milan. Ronaldinho was made to look quite ordinary and had the ball taken off him time and time again. J S Park added goal number 3 and then, 3 minutes before the end, Fletcher steered in a fine header, over the keeper, to stitch it all up at 4-0, 7-2 in aggregate. United again proved to be far superior to Italian sides. AC Milan were tactical babies to United tonight.

Fletcher header

Ferguson made a stroke of genius when he decided to play Gary Neville in place of Rafael da Silva, to look after Ronaldinho and he did such a good job that Neville was more often up in attack and supplying crosses instead o f defending as he knew full well that a lazy Ronaldinho does not track back, does not defend. Seedorf came on relatively early for Milan but he could make no impression on the hounding harrassing football of United.

Beckham came on in the second half and, to be fair, made a difference, giving Milan more scope in attack, cracking a massive volley at United goals causing Van der Sar to fist it out and over for a corner which Beckham also took. Beckham’s final act was to don a green and gold scarf before he walked off, much to the delight of the sell out crowd!! One of the all time great nights of european football.

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First Silver of Season – United

Mar 2

Posted by red devil in Football | No Comments

Owen Scores For United

This report from Sky Sports

Wayne Rooney came off the bench to head the winner as Manchester United retained the Carling Cup by coming from behind to beat Aston Villa 2-1 at Wembley. Replaced by Michael Owen in the starting line-up, Rooney came on for his injured team-mate before half-time and then guided home the winning goal 16 minutes from time. Villa had enjoyed a dream start when taking the lead on five minutes after James Milner coolly sent Tomasz Kuszczak the wrong way from the penalty spot after Nemanja Vidic was fortunate not to be sent off for bringing down Gabriel Agbonlahor.

United were level less than 10 minutes later, though, when Dimitar Berbatov robbed Richard Dunne of possession and, while the Villa defender recovered to tackle the Bulgarian, the loose ball was swept home from just inside the box by Owen. But Owen failed to last the half as his injury jinx struck again and he was replaced by Rooney before United almost went into the break in front when Park Ji-sung’s shot thudded off the post and bounced clear off Carlos Cuellar.

Brad Friedel produced an excellent save from Michael Carrick early in the second period, but was beaten on 74 minutes when Antonio Valencia, after a slick one-two with Berbatov, stood a cross up for Rooney to guide a header beyond the Villa keeper’s reach. Rooney headed another Valencia cross against the base of the upright moments later and, though Emile Heskey’s header deflected on to the top of the crossbar, Villa were unable to prevent United from winning back-to-back cup competitions for the first time in the club’s history.

Villa’s flying start meant there was no chance of either side being allowed to turn this into the sterile affair many had predicted. At the time, Martin O’Neill questioned how Vidic avoided a card of any kind for his foul on Agbonlahor. As the contest wore on, and an increasing number of his own players ended up in Phil Dowd’s notebook, the criticism grew. If Agbonlahor had gone down when Vidic first grabbed his shirt, the card should have been red. Instead, the Villa striker admirably attempted to stay on his feet after outpacing the Serbian to reach Ashley Young’s lofted pass beyond the United defence.

In the end, it was too much. Vidic stuck out a leg and hauled Agbonlahor down. Milner kept his nerve, sending Kuszczak the wrong way to provide the contest with the start it craved. As tends to be the case when they fall behind, United’s response was an all-out attacking assault, which in turn provided Villa with space to counter. The mixture produced a thrilling spectacle, made all the more absorbing because Sir Alex Ferguson’s team levelled so quickly. So solid all season, it was just Dunne’s luck his blunder should come in Villa’s biggest game of the year.

The Irishman was robbed by Berbatov inside his own half, and though he made up the ground, in making his despairing tackle, Dunne only succeeded in rolling the ball into Owen’s path, offering the kind of instinctive first-time finish he has made a career out of. That Owen’s contribution – and Rooney’s exile – came to an end three minutes before the break was cause for regret, although the watching Fabio Capello has long since deduced those dodgy hamstrings cannot be trusted through another World Cup campaign.

Capello was probably also reaching the conclusion Stephen Warnock should be handed his problematic left-back berth against Egypt on Wednesday. But when Warnock slipped just before half-time, man-of-the-match Valencia galloped past him down the by-line, his cross eventually arriving at the feet of Park, who slammed it onto the inside of a post, where it rocketed across goal for Cuellar to hack clear. Friedel palmed away a magnificently constructed effort from Carrick after half-time, although Villa were United’s equals and could easily have levelled when Young sent a volley bouncing into the ground.

The decisive moment arrived on 74 minutes when Berbatov nonchalantly flicked Valencia’s pass back into the Ecuadorian’s path and he lifted up a cross for Rooney to loop a header into the net. Rooney almost made the game safe four minutes later, with Valencia again the provider as the England ace’s header came back off the post with Friedel beaten. Villa responded in kind, Vidic deflecting Heskey’s header onto his own bar and then Dunne nodded wide after steaming in to meet Stewart Downing’s cross at the far post.

But Villa were unable to force Kuszczak into another save and Valencia had a chance to kill off his team’s opponents when lashing wide in stoppage-time.

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Come on You Knights!!!

Mar 2

Posted by red devil in Football | No Comments

A group of City investors known as the Red Knights are plotting to take over at Manchester United – but who are they?

Skysports.com brings you the lowdown of the key players who could potentially take charge at Britain’s biggest club.

WHO ARE THE RED KNIGHTS PLOTTING TO TAKE OVER MANCHESTER UNITED?
A mixture of City bankers, lawyers and lifelong United fans, including Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill, Paul Marshall, a partner at the hedge fund Marshall Wace, Richard Hytner of advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi and Mark Rawlinson, a partner in Freshfields’ corporate practice who advised United on their takeover by Malcolm Glazer and his family in 2005.

WHAT IS THEIR PLAN?
Simple. To raise £1billion to buy out the Glazers, who have plunged the club into debt to the tune of £716.5million.

HOW WOULD THEY RAISE THE CASH?
One idea involves finding 40 individuals to put up £20m each, with the Red Knights borrowing around £200m to top up the offer, but the plan would be to keep debt to a minimum.

HOW WOULD THEY RUN THE CLUB?
For the fans and not as a commercial venture is the plan. United would stay in private ownership and not be returned to the public markets where it was traded until the Glazers’ buyout.

WHO IS THEIR LEADER?
Seymour Pierce stockbroker Keith Harris is the man brokering the potential takeover. He is a former HSBC investment bank chief executive and well known in football circles due to his involvement in takeovers of West Ham, Manchester City and Aston Villa. He is also the financier who warned last year that football’s gravy train was set for a crash.

DO THEY HAVE SUPPORT?
The Red Knights have spoken with the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust (MUST), who have indicated they will back any bid. Not surprising considering the blaze of green and gold inside Old Trafford as fans protest against the Glazers in the colours of Newton Heath, the club which predated United.

WHAT CHANCE HAS THE PLOT OF SUCCEEDING?
Not good. Exploratory discussions are thought to have begun at the offices of law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer on Monday to study the viability, rather than details, of any bid. The problem is that the Glazers maintain they have no intention of selling and the Red Knights have no way of ousting them other than to make a bid they cannot refuse.

DO THE GLAZERS HAVE ANY SUPPORT?
Not among fans but their decision to alleviate high interest repayments on the £716.5million debt with a £500million bond issue last month was successful. The issue was twice oversubscribed.

IS HARRIS CONFIDENT?
Cautiously optimistic at best. He said: “There is a serious intent on the part of those people (Red Knights) who have not just support in their hearts but the ability to muster support from their pockets to get after this and the time feels right.”

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Space Junk

Feb 25

Posted by red devil in Science/Space | No Comments

The already untidy mass of orbital debris that litters low Earth orbit nearly got nastier last month. A head-on collision was averted between a spent upper stage from a Chinese rocket and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) huge Envisat Earth remote-sensing spacecraft.Space junk tracking information supplied by the U.S. military, as well as confirming German radar data, showed that the two space objects would speed by each other at a nail-biting distance of roughly 160 feet (50 meters).

ESA’s Envisat tips the scales at 8 tons, with China’s discarded rocket body weighing some 3.8 tons. A couple of tweaks of maneuvering propellant were used to nudge the large ESA spacecraft to a more comfortable miss distance. But what if the two objects had tangled?

Such a space collision would have caused mayhem in the heavens, adding clutter to an orbit altitude where there are big problems already, said Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany.

It turns out, Klinkrad told SPACE.com, that 50 percent of all the close conjunctions that Envisat faces are due to the lethal leftovers from China’s January 2007 anti-satellite test, as well as chunks of junk resulting from last year’s smashup between an active U.S. Iridium satellite and a defunct Russian Cosmos spacecraft.

Klinkrad joined several orbital debris experts that took part in the 33rd Annual Guidance and Control Conference organized by the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Astronautical Society. The five-day meeting began Feb. 5.

Avoidance maneuvers

Significant progress has been made by the U.S. and the international aerospace communities in recognizing the hazards of orbital debris, reported Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist for orbital debris at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Johnson added that steps are being taken to reduce or eliminate the potential for the creation of new debris. However, “the future environment is expected to worsen without additional corrective measures,” he noted.
During 2009, Johnson reported, five different NASA robotic spacecraft carried out collision avoidance maneuvers: a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-3), Cloudsat, Earth Observing Mission 1, Aqua, and Landsat 7. Also, the space shuttle and the International Space Station took collision avoidance actions, he said.

The worst thing that could happen, according to ESA’s Klinkrad, is the International Space Station (ISS) receiving a fatal hit. The space station is currently home to five astronauts representing the U.S., Russia and Japan. “A penetrating object hitting the ISS, and possibly causing a casualty onboard . . . I think that would be the most dramatic case we could have,” Klinkrad suggested. Such an incident might turn public opinion against human spaceflight, he said.

Collaboration on the increase

One bit of good news in all this orbital riff-raff. Due to last year’s satellite crash between the Iridium and Cosmos spacecraft, Johnson explained that the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) of the U.S. Strategic Command now conducts conjunction assessments for all operational spacecraft in Earth orbit, regardless of ownership nationality. “To be honest, a year ago, we couldn’t even have hoped to have done this,” Johnson told SPACE.com.

“It’s really a consequence of the collision last year. People have been talking about this for years. But now we’ve made the commitment . . . that this is something that needs to be done and can be done relatively easily,” Johnson said. Klinkrad concurred. “The collaboration is getting even closer now,” he said.

Duck or pluck?

Playing dodge ball with high-speed space debris is one tactic. But there is also a growing interest in removing the most troublesome objects — perhaps an annual quota of some sort.Targeted would be specific inclination bands and altitude regimes, Klinkrad said. But prior to implementing debris remediation measures on a global scale, technical, operational, legal and economic problems must be overcome. Klinkrad and NASA’s Johnson provided a wearisome appraisal of the future.

Even with an immediate halt of launch activities, spacefaring nations will be dealing with an unstable low-Earth orbit environment in some altitude and inclination bands. This would be a consequence of about 20 catastrophic collisions within the next 200 years, the two orbital debris experts explained. Some orbit altitudes already have critical mass concentrations that will trigger “collisional cascading” within a few decades, unless debris environment remediation measures are introduced.

The Kessler Syndrome

The idea of debris creating debris was put in motion by Donald Kessler, along with fellow NASA researcher, Burton Cour-Palais, back in 1978. Their research suggested that, as the number of artificial satellites in Earth orbit increases, the probability of collisions between satellites also increases. Satellite collisions would produce orbiting fragments, each of which would increase the probability of further collisions, leading to the growth of a belt of debris around the Earth.Now, decades later, that prophecy has been dubbed the Kessler Syndrome.

Kessler told SPACE.com that the disorder fits into much more complex natural laws that include the evolution of the solar system, as well as meteoroids, meteorites, and climate-changing asteroids. Kessler is now an orbital debris and meteoroid consultant in Asheville, North Carolina.”There is nothing complex about what is called the ‘Kessler Syndrome’ . . . it is just the way nature may have converted a disorderly group of orbiting rocks into an orderly solar system . . . although nature reminds us with a large asteroid or comet collision every few million years that it isn’t quite finished yet. “In the case of orbital debris, this collision process is just starting,” Kessler explained. Consequently, nobody should be surprised that as orbital debris models became more complex — and as more data is obtained — the same conclusion holds, Kessler said.

“The future debris environment will be dominated by fragments resulting from random collisions between objects in orbit, and that environment will continue to increase, even if we do not launch any new objects into orbit,” Kessler concluded.


http://www.space.com/missionlaunches…er-100223.html

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The Moon Is Leaving

Feb 20

Posted by red devil in Science/Space | No Comments

When scientists first began doing laser range finding with the laser mirrors left on the lunar surface by the Apollo astronauts, they soon began to note a slight change in distances. The moon is actually leaving the orbit of the Earth and one day will simply shrug off the gravitational pull of the Earth and become a solar roaming free agent. Most likely scenario is that it may well, eventually, become caught in the gravitational field of Jupiter, the solar system’s vast vacuum cleaner, and either become a Jovian satellite or be destroyed in a titanic collision. Another possibility is that it may stay in the same orbit as Earth and eventually catch it up and collide.

Last night (Feb 19th 2010), on Discovery tv, I watched a program which enforced that which I already knew. It showed us, in some quite spectacular graphics, that a Mars sized object hit the virgin Earth at approx 45 dgrees causing a mass ejection of material into surrounding space. Most of this coagulated together to form the Moon and the heavier iron elements fell back to Earth.

When the moon originally formed, it was 15 times nearer the Earth, therefore 15 times as large. Must have been some sight, moonrise!

Sci Fi addicts may well recall the UK Sci Fi sceries, Space 1999, in which the moon was blown clear of Earth by a nuclear accident. But, what that fictional series did not show was the effect this would have on Earth. The tides will cease for a start, when the seas level out, cities like New York and Rio would become uninhabitable as a 4 metre rise would occur.

The last time the Earth ‘wobbled’ was back when the Sahara was a lush, tropical giant forest. The result of that ‘wobble’ is as we see the Sahara now. The moonless Earth will experience wobbles of more severity. The Earth’s angle to the sun (23 deg) is maintained by the Moon, without this steadying effect, weather patterns would be severely more extreme and changes to the surface was more markedly differing in style. The Moon leaving would cause the Earth to become unstable and fluctuations occur. The polar caps could become the new equator for example! The northern hemisphere enjoys its ‘winter’ even though the Earth is actually nearest to the Sun, and vice versa due to this 23 degree angle. Which is why summers down under are notably hotter than our own, when the Earth is furthest from the Sun. Anyway, hopefully by this time, we may have actually evolved enough to have the ability and knowledge to ‘move house’?

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Proud To Be United

Feb 17

Posted by red devil in Football | No Comments

Wayne Rooney - 2 goals in Milan

Manchester United secured an historic win at the San Siro as they drew first blood in an enthralling Champions League last-16 tie with AC Milan. Wayne Rooney was the match-winner with a brace of second-half headers to earn United a precious first-leg advantage. They came after Paul Scholes’ fortunate equaliser but Milan played their part after Ronaldinho’s deflected opener. Clarence Seedorf’s skilful 85th-minute finish gave Milan hope, while Michael Carrick was sent off in injury time. Carrick’s second yellow card – for kicking the ball away – capped a frantic finale as Milan, who had bossed the opening hour, threatened to deny United a first win in the stadium.  And that, combined with Seedorf’s late goal, served to take the edge off the win, even though United showed just about enough to suggest they can keep Milan at bay in the second leg on 10 March. It was a strange affair for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men, who in many ways can consider themselves fortunate to have come away with the win after a first hour in which they looked a shadow of a side that has gone nine games unbeaten.

Before the match, Ferguson had talked pointedly of avoiding the “circus” that surrounded David Beckham’s first match against his former employers.  But whether they had been caught up in the pre-match hype or merely overwhelmed by the occasion, United barely got out of first gear in a nervy half-hour.  Poor in possession, toothless in attack and ill-organised in defence, the visitors allowed Milan the freedom of the San Siro as the hosts quickly got into their stride.  Just three minutes were on the clock when a Beckham free-kick found its way to Ronaldinho via a dire attempted clearance from Patrice Evra, and the Brazilian wasted little time in lashing home, via a Carrick deflection, for the opening goal.

In truth, though, it could have been a lot worse for Ferguson’s men before half-time as they gave the ball away cheaply time and again.  Before the match, Ferguson had talked pointedly of avoiding the “circus” that surrounded David Beckham’s first match against his former employers.  But whether they had been caught up in the pre-match hype or merely overwhelmed by the occasion, United barely got out of first gear in a nervy half-hour. Poor in possession, toothless in attack and ill-organised in defence, the visitors allowed Milan the freedom of the San Siro as the hosts quickly got into their stride.  Just three minutes were on the clock when a Beckham free-kick found its way to Ronaldinho via a dire attempted clearance from Patrice Evra, and the Brazilian wasted little time in lashing home, via a Carrick deflection, for the opening goal.

However, with Rooney an increasingly unsettling presence for the Milan defence, there was always a chance United would spark and when they finally clicked into gear just past the hour mark, the visitors finally showed their class.  First Rooney rose above Daniele Bonera to expertly head home substitute Antonio Valencia’s cross.  Then, unmarked, he executed the far simpler task of heading in Fletcher’s clever pass just eight minutes later to hand his side a two-goal cushion.  With Milan looking out on their feet, and Beckham having been withdrawn in the 72nd minute after a largely ineffective display, the tie looked to be there for United to put beyond doubt.

And yet there was still a twist left in the tie as Ronaldinho found room on the left and crossed for Seedorf to flick in Milan’s second.  The hosts might even have snatched a thrilling draw had Filippo Inzaghi not blazed over from Ronaldinho’s pass or Thiago Silva not headed over from a corner in injury time.  But United held on to secure a vital first-leg lead, extending their unbeaten away run in Europe to a record 16 matches in the process and ensuring Beckham’s first match against his boyhood club was not one he will remember with any great fondness. BBC Sport.

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Portsmouth Plundered

Feb 7

Posted by red devil in Football | No Comments

Wayne

Manchester United stormed to the top of the Premier League after crushing bottom club Portsmouth. Wayne Rooney met Darren Fletcher’s cross to head the opener and the lead was doubled when Nani’s low cross was deflected in by Anthony Vanden Borre. Michael Carrick’s drive hit Richard Hughes and thumped in off the bar and Dimitar Berbatov’s shot made it 4-0. Portsmouth misery was complete when Marc Wilson tried to clear a cross but smashed a volley into his own goal. It was a ruthless performance from United but the reality was they barely had to break sweat to beat a Portsmouth side in freefall. Three own goals in one game, I cannot recall that ever happening before, and especially as they are all ’scored’ by the same team.

United went in to the game knowing a win would see them leapfrog Chelsea to sit at the Premier League summit, with the Blues hosting third-placed Arsenal on Sunday. And on paper it seemed they could not get an easier opportunity, with crisis club Portsmouth having won only once in eight matches, as well as attracting unwanted headlines for their financial difficulties and allegations about their manager Avram Grant’s behaviour. United’s off-the-field problems were of the more traditional kind – Rio Ferdinand was out suspended and fellow centre-back Nemanja Vidic was still not fit to return to action. Not that United’s backline needed to be at its strongest, with Portsmouth chasing shadows for much of the game as Nani, Antonio Valencia and Rooney ran riot.

Predictably, the visitors’ defence folded under pressure, with Portsmouth contributing two of United’s goals.  Grant’s men did well to reach half-time having conceded only two goals as they found themselves struggling to repel wave after wave of United attacks.  Rooney had a decent penalty claim turned down after being pushed by Frederic Piquionne, while Berbatov missed a sitter from six yards after being picked out by Gary Neville.  Portsmouth did manage to carve out one chance and it took an alert Jonny Evans to clear Jamie O’Hara’s goal-bound effort. But it was a very rare effort from Portsmouth and they soon went behind. When Fletcher’s cross was left, inexplicably, by keeper David James, Rooney headed in from close range.  James was again left cursing soon after when he was wrong-footed by a deflection off Vanden Borre from Nani’s cross.

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England – Cesspit of Islamism

Feb 2

Posted by red devil in Politics & PC Britain | No Comments

Wole Soyinka attacked UK’s ‘openness’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson

England is a “cesspit” and breeding ground for fundamentalist Muslims, the Nobel laureate and political activist Wole Soyinka has said in an interview in which he also accused Britain of allowing the existence of “indoctrination schools”.

His extraordinary attack on what he views as Britain’s part in fuelling Islamist terrorism was published on the US news and opinion website The Daily Beast. It was coupled with his assertion that the 1989 fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie meant that the assumption of power over life and death had passed “to every ­inconsequential Muslim in the world”.

Soyinka, the first African to win the Nobel prize for literature in 1986, made his claims in response to a question about his homeland of Nigeria being added to the watchlist of countries deemed to be incubating terrorists, after the failed attempts of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring an airliner down over the US on Christmas Day.

“That was an irrational, knee-jerk reaction by the Americans,” the writer said. “The man did not get radicalised in Nigeria. It happened in England, where he went to university.

“England is a cesspit. England is the breeding ground of fundamentalist ­Muslims. Its social logic is to allow all religions to preach openly. But this is illogic, because none of the other religions preach apocalyptic violence.

“And yet England allows it. Remember, that country was the breeding ground for communism, too. Karl Marx did all his work in libraries there …”

Soyinka added: “This is part of the character of Great Britain. Colonialism bred an innate arrogance, but when you undertake that sort of imperial adventure, that arrogance gives way to a feeling of accommodativeness. You take pride in your openness.”

The attempted Christmas Day bombing has helped to raise fears that some British universities are becoming places in which young Muslims are radicalised – ­Abdulmutallab attended University College, London. But Soyinka, who splits his time between the US and Nigeria, suggested that British Muslims were being radicalised earlier in their lives.

“I doubt you can have the kind of indoctrination schools in America as you do in the UK,” he said. “Besides, there’s a large body of American Muslims in the US – the Nation of Islam – which has created a kind of mainstream Muslim institution. The Muslims there are open Muslims, whereas in Europe they tend to go into ghetto schools. “The Nation of Islam provides an antidote in the United States to fundamentalist Islam – which is why individuals from America have to go abroad to find radical teachings.”

And , speaking about the fatwa issued by Khomeini against Rushdie, he said: “It all began when he assumed the power of life and death over the life of a writer. This was a watershed between doctrinaire aggression and physical aggression. There was an escalation. The assumption of power over life and death then passed to every single inconsequential Muslim in the world – as if someone had given them a new stature.

“Al-Qaida is the descendant of this phenomenon. The proselytisation of Islam became vigorous after this. People went to Saudi Arabia. Madrasas were established everywhere.”

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Internet Shopping

Jan 21

Posted by red devil in General Items | No Comments

Let me tell you a little story. My daughter bought a desk from a home furnishing company based in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire. It arrived in good time, over a hundred quids worth and pieces of it were broken. So I phoned them and told them. I got a very surly Asian person telling me to return it. No, I said, it weighs over 20kg, you will arrange for your courier to come and collect it. no we will not, you have to send it back. Now, according to the Sales of Goods Act 1979, damaged goods are the responsibility of the sender to get them back. ‘So what’, they said, you want a refund YOU send it back. The problem is that time was not on our side as paypal and eBay only allow so long before they do nothing themselves, a right sorry state of affairs. In the end a friend helped me out and arranged it to go back on his account as couriers will not take anything unless the sender has an account and the home furniture company would not arrange this. Now I am about to follow another route which is easier, but not the fault of the credit card. I am going to claim the costs back from them and let THEM deal with the bastards themselves. Hardly fair, but then again, neither were the company.

So therein lies a lesson, do not use any furniture company based in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire as you will probably be dealing with the same company I did, and never will again.

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Standard of British Referees

Jan 19

Posted by red devil in Football | No Comments

Ferguson at an Earlier Altercation with DeanThe scene: Manchester City v Manchester United in the Carling Cup Semi Final first of two legs. The away team, United were winning 1-0 and looking comfortable. The referee decided that a blatant dive by David Bellamy (City) was worthy of a penalty award and, in spite of the fact that all the world could see nothing happened, gave it, converted by Tevez. Score 1-1 and a prime example of a games result being decided, yet again, by a blind official. He then rubbed salt into United’s wounds by giving a corner when the ball had obviously gone out for a United goal kick. This was converted by Tevez. 2-1 to Manchester City was the final score and the referee, Mike Dean, should be struck off the lists for such an abysmal sequence of events which, effectively, decided a football match. The players, clubs or managers did not decide this, but an individual referee who could not see the wood for the trees. I would also point out that another blatant dive, this time by City defender Richards went unpunished by the referee. If the referee decided that it was indeed a dive, why did he not yellow, or red, card, Richards?

Officials decides results, not players, not managers, not clubs and certainly not tactics. No manager in the world can prepare a team for the decisions of such an imbecile as Mike Dean.

I would also like to ask what will be done about the missle thrown that hit Patrice Evra, the United defender?

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