Eye Witness Report: Manchester United 0 - Liverpool FC 3.

Posted by Harinder on March 17, 2014, 01:34:56 pm

Births. Marriages. Deaths. They can define so much. In the gap between playing Southampton and Manchester United there has been so much in the way of life events that Football was missed but not for as long as the other times we have to wait. There is a relevance so bear with me!

So births. First week without a match and I become an uncle to a lovely nephew. In a girl dominated household where there have been more girls than boys over the years he’s a welcome addition as well as a refreshing change. His dad is one of the 2 Manchester United fans who’ve married into the families so to speak. The other week prior to this match I became an uncle to a lovely niece. Yes… her dad is the other Manchester United fan who married into the family :)

I’ll come back to deaths at the end… will be more fitting.

I won’t bore you with my history of Manchester. Suffice to say after four years there at the University of Manchester I was happy for my degree and happy to move on. Shouldn’t begrudge them the success they had whilst I was there but I did meet the one and only Liverpool fan I know born and bred in Manchester. I hadn’t seen him some thirteen years… he was one of the first people I bumped into just outside the East Stand!

This would be a good day :D

I also met Doc Evil (Jag) and Sunny Bains who you may recall from my signature and his son who needed a bone marrow transplant. Both dad and son are doing well… you can see for yourselves here!!!



Now I know we have some very nice and honourable Manchester United fans on here so it does pain me say this that for all that is stressed by the better majority. Some Utd fans do themselves no justice by singing “murderers” to show the level of intelligence one has only winds people up. Cue our good Sunny challenging one of these idiots to grow up. Only for a police officer to pull him up on it and asking him to take the higher ground. As Jag eloquently stated to the police officer “It’s not the idiot’s fault his mother and father were close relatives prior to birth”. Now if the police actually attempted to stamp out such idiotic abuse…

Anyway we’re all in. I’m in Block 230 and many familiar faces too as well as in 231 (yes Pata… I saw you standing there!).

First half (the timings are not sponsored by Bulova).

In. Starts. Flanagan awesome in every sense. He just embarrassed a few of them with his no nonsense approach. As  did Raheem as he reduced Fellaini’s volume in more ways than one. A swift move and Sturridge goes close. In a way I’m relieved. Early goals away at City and Chelsea still linger in the back of my mind. I also selfishly wanted to see this team punished for the whole match. Let this be the making of the Moyes.

Utd can't breathe let alone get close. No Mata superlatives. No Rooney supremacies. No RVP at all. Save them Carrick. Or maybe not. Deliver the Utd from this pain Moyesiah. You're their only hope. Sadly you’re being robbed of everything. Flanagan is my hero so far in this first half. He’s carrying on shining. My first Old Trafford visit coincided sitting just behind Flanagan in the East Stand Upper. We’ve both come a long long way together since then.

The first 20/30 minutes had flown by. Allen had nearly scored, Gerrard was making a mockery of Phil Jones and Henderson/Sterling have shown United the ultimate respect on the pitch… an almighty none.

But why haven’t we scored? Come on Reds. Please. And then I see something nothing can erase. So many years of going to matches and the changing of the times is epitomised by one electronic advertising board. Reds across the land. Save your children now. If you have relatives you care about save them too. THIS is modern support. This is Man Utd. This is a joke. I see before my eyes a Live Cam thing on these boards. It’s seriously spooky and more modern and strange football. A live cam type feed of faces at a PC showing their UTD support with a heading of “Fans taking part and showing support globally” or something like that. How can you do that looking at a webcam? Just what on earth is wrong with you?

The Sir Alex cam looked like this :lmao



East stand upper block 230. Row 6. Perfect position for so much. When the ball swept to the right to Sturridge we could all see Suarez screaming for ball. Henderson et al bombing through middle. Utd look at him. We look at Suarez and thank you Rafael. Penalty. Bedlam. Gerrard. 1-0. We have the lead at Old Trafford and it is a gift that will keep on giving. We’d been singing throughout already at very high decibels. We got louder.

No Utd songs pre or post. So that's 30 mins odd of nothing followed by 15 mins of first half of, yes, you guessed it, nothing

Singing wise the Travelling Kop hadn't  stopped from 5 mins before kick off inside. Good thing too as we don't want the home fans thinking they've done anything worth signing about. You can’t sing about fouls, dodgy barnets or even a Granny’s best friend. Sing a song for Moyes. Yes. That’s what you should do. It’s the United way. Supporting and sticking with the manager. We don’t want him to go. Most certainly not. He is someone we have a deep affection for. Like that bit of something stuck deep inside that irritates for years and only a deep colonic irrigation can get rid off.

Alas they don’t. They don’t sing for the David. They don’t sing for more more more.

Genius is often misunderstood :lmao

40 something mins for a Rafael/Januzaj overlap that worked. One cross. Rooney hits it and Mignolet with a great save and then defenders with a brilliant block. That is about it as far as threat goes. You won't see another one really all match. Utd should DVD that moment. Will make Moyes feel more at home in his current surroundings.

Half time musings

• What exactly has Giggs been tearing apart all these years? Does his brother know?
• The Flanagan song. Miss it. Miss out
• Why is Rafael still on the pitch? Why?
• It can't stay 1-0. It just can’t.
• Why on earth have an electronic ad board saying "you can buy a piece of history blah blah blah" in French? Evra isn't about to go to the club shop at half time.
• Luis Suarez lob. To be fair to him, there are a lot of Norwich City scarves around.

• Moyes effect. Half time team talk.

  David: "Robin. Ah need yooze to get in to 'em"
  RVP: "No"
  David: "Please Robin. Cannae not think of the team?"
  RVP: "No"
  Fellaini: “ifithadntabinferStevenGerrardboss…”

Ps – I missed the Utd kid taking penalties… did he score? Was too busy laughing at United and my phone was going off more than ever. Not one text/tweet from the United family members.

Second half

Nothing from Utd fans. Not even a rabble rousing cheer. We carry on where we left off. So does Phil "The Face" Jones. A bit of brilliant movement from Joe Allen and another pen. 2-0. This is now mental. A few words for Jordan Henderson – Ball lad!!! Second half has only just started and this is it. It’s on. Note the time of the goal. It is where the Yernited we knew of old left the building. In spirit and body.

It's where we erupted. Take a look at that soul leaving Utd and our captain doing it. I can admit a strange feeling when making the split decision to record this. I recorded little else but something spoke inside and took over.

I'm glad I listened.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZDzAMducrVM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/ZDzAMducrVM</a>

Their response wasn't exactly rip roaring. No marauding and rampaging bursts. Just a ball played right through Fellaini's hair. Yup. Must be between 50-60 mins. Don't have replay of match to hand when I do these as i don't want to change how I remember the match but laughed so hard I had to explain to some young lad next to me what happened and why his dad 2 seats down was laughing at the same thing. Just like Moyesiah disappearing so have RVP and Mata. We are seeing a lot of the United defence though. They are hearing a lot of us. We still haven’t stopped singing. They haven’t even started. Lift the team why don’t you Utd? You play for glory? You must sing never for shits and giggles then

Well ok. You did sing about Vidic. He comes from Serbia blah blah blah blah Mancini :)

Coutinho comes on and the last 20 minutes are breathtaking in reality. We are hunting them down with no compassion. The hat-trick for Stevie is on! Shot just went wide too.

Suarez kept trying to push through the defenders and wriggle free. At times he could have passed earlier but we all can feel why he wanted a goal. Especially when Evra was nearby. So when Sturridge decided to show the world again why he is so lethal the now to be departing Vidic struck. No Taggart level investigation needed for this one… it’s a penalty. It hits the post and I thought it would be the 3rd and game well and truly over. Less than 15 minutes remain so we’re bound to see another chance for it.

Oh. Bye Bye Nemanja :wave … AGAIN!

We’re still singing and bouncing. Manchester United fans had already started leaving. This must be hard for them I think for about a second because the third goal knocked on the door again. Suarez in and muscles past 2 defenders who attempt to sandwich him in a manner befitting two grannies and Rooney but De Gea saves. Credit where it’s due it’s a worldy of a save but just one we could do without.

4th penalty that never was. From my angle I couldn’t tell but Sturridge’s face said it all. More than ever I wanted a 3rd goal now.

And then it came. In what can only be described as bedazzling. Evra the defender of the Earth and honesty personified played Suarez on and WE ARE GONNA WIN THE LEAGUE. 3rd goal heaven. I have absolutely no idea what ensued on the pitch afterwards other than us going for the fourth. In the East Stand it was all about singing. I was to the left of the banner unveiled in honour of the genius Moyes and all I can say is this. When the very Manchester United supporting stewards allow it who are we to decline the world stage a viewing of our love for David?

And now they sing. God knows what exactly as it wasn’t very audible or clear in the ground but some people in the media have got it in their head that this some kind of act of amazing support? Utter tosh. How is it? Because some 20,000 remaining dipsticks sing something no-one can clearly here in the ground? Here’s some Rafa type “facts” for you…. Especially you on MOTD2

1 – 5 minutes cannot equate to 90 minutes
2 – how many minutes can you attribute to the travelling kop? I’ll give you 95 as a minimum to cover the time played on the pitch. You can add a lot of Fergie time to that in order to get a more accurate representation
3 – Please name the songs the Manchester United faithful sang to raise the spirits of a team that were being pissed upon and embarrassed both on and off the pitch? Name one and name the minute it was sung? If you can’t then sincerely do one.

The final whistle blows and there is NO lock in… to be honest why would you need one? The ground emptied a long time before that in regards to what was Manchester United. This may hurt a Manchester United fan to read but the truth is the 46th minute was the time a certain something was laid to rest. No-one will know when it will come back. Until then your genius will lead you forth to conquer depths unknown.

And it is in remembrance I want to end this piece. Unbeknown to me, yesterday was also an anniversary of a certain family’s son passing away. His whole family are Liverpool fans and have carried on with strength and dignity after losing someone so young. My Friday of the week prior was spent at a fundraiser for a foundation who’d lost their daughter at a young age. We all have known this loss of people before their time and I take this time to implore you to take heed of all the warnings out there around social media and forums and the coroners inquests reopening at the end of March. Now that the wheels of Justice have started turning please let’s not put anything in the way of their motion.

May all those at rest know peace.

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