Reading 0 Manchester United 2 (Rooney 77, Ronaldo 90+2)
A very entertaining open game was decided by some Rooney magic as the Champions overcame the Royals in Berkshire.
As previously noted, I managed to get tickets for this game and went with my son and my dad to the Madejski Stadium. We were in the South Stand amongst the home support, but in the same stand as the United fans. Once inside with pint in hand (for two of us) we could hear the United fans on the other side of the wall, singing away. We went out to find our seats and found that they were actually back row which gave us a tremendous view of the passage of play but meant we were not exactly close to the action.
The game started and United were attacking the far end to us. After the initial 5 minutes the game settled very open. Reading played with two forwards and another forward in right midfield and Hunt, normally a winger in midfield. In contrast to their Old Trafford performance, Reading made this a game took the game to United. By the end of the first half, Reading were on top. Whilst United looked dangerous going forward, the midfield was conceding too much ground and possession and putting too much pressure on the defence.
Hargreaves harried well enough, but offered nothing going forward. Carrick was anonymous for large parts of the game and Park was just simply poor and completely outplayed. Reading were very clever in putting two left midfield players, Hunt and Convey over on United’s weak spot, the right back. Whilst Wes Brown is competent enough, he is the least of our defenders and gets no protection from Ronaldo in front (not a criticism of Ronaldo, btw).
As a result of their dominance of the midfield, Reading were able to put our central defenders under considerable pressure. Despite reports on MotD, I’m happy to say that Ferdinand and Vidic coped well. Kitson was very good as a strong centre forward but Vidic met power with power. Whilst I say they coped ok, due to the amount of pressure Reading had a number of chances when the could have scored.
A rare blunder from Van Der Sar left him well out of position and only intelligent positioning from Ferdinand denied Kitson the opening goal. More pressure and Kitson was brought down in the area by a poor challenge from Carrick but the referee gave the free kick the other way. Finally Vidic had to desperately tackle Kitson and ended up putting the ball in his own net. He was only saved by the fact that Kitson was offside.
All this said, United’s forwards are of such quality that they were able to create a number of chances themselves, without much help from the midfield. Hahnemann saved well from Tevez, Rooney evened up the “balls in net but offside” count and Hargreaves curled a wonderful freekick to the top corner only for Hahnemann to produce an excellent save. The replays on the big screen produced a loud “oooooh” from all corners of the ground.
Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t get where he was today by ignoring the blindingly obvious and at half time replaced Park for Ryan Giggs. An early second half corner from Giggs almost provided the first goal as Hahnemann didn’t collect it and it bounced off Kitson’s back towards the goal. It was saved by an excellent clearance from Reading’s centre back Cisse.
Slowly the pressure increased on Reading’s goal. Ronaldo skied over the bar from six yards out. Hargreaves was replaced by Nani as United decided that as the midfield was so poor, we would just play with forwards and wingers.
Eventually the goal game, just when you were starting to think that this one was going to get away. United built on the left and Reading failed to clear it properly. Tevez got the ball and played a wonderful pass to Rooney, who provided the deftest of touches to glance the ball into the net. A quality goal. All Reading’s hard work was undone by a touch of genius.
Reading pushed further forward in search of an equalizer and nearly got it. Good work in the midfield again and Harper burst through on goal and put his shot inches wide. Reading attacked again, it broke down and United had a three v two with the keeper but failed to score. Into injury time (I’m with Fergie; the game had virtually no injuries and only one flashpoint where Convey and Ferdinand were both booked; where did four minutes come from?) and still Reading attacked. Murty’s attempted shot hit Vidic and then Fletcher cleared to Ronaldo. This time it was three on one and Shorey got no where near him and he coolly made it 2-0.
A hard fought and vital away win for United and an entertaining and open game. We left the ground and got caught in a group of Man United fans looking for their coach. They were all happy, if a bit lost.
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Great report and very accurate. Do you know what wound Fergie up? The close ups on TV after the second goal showed him doing a very un-Sir like salute to someone on his left. I suppose it could have been the 4 minutes and he was having a go at the 4th official. I never felt that Reading would score though, sorry Reading fans cos they played well.
I don’t know what got Fergie so wound up. Obviously from so far back in the wrong stand, I didn’t see the incident and on the TV it didn’t show who it was aimed at; fans; Wally Downes (no shirking violet himself) or the 4th official. I would guess the latter; a sort of “ha, you play an infair 4 extra minutes; but we were the ones to score in them”.