Youth Beat Doncaster (Doncaster 0 - Manchester United 2)

With less than 48hrs to the season curtain raiser, Fergie opted to field a team largely made up from the reserves and the youth team. Well, actually the reserve team has been mainly made up of under 21s from what I've been seeing on MUTV for the past season.

This game would probably be noted as Anderson's debut and he really didn't do too badly. He certainly did much much better in the red of United than the yellow of Brazil for the Copa. Coming with a somewhat big reputation and a larger price tag, he was marked tightly throughout the time he was on the pitch. At times he was hounded by two doncaster players. Despite the ultra tight marking job, he still managed to spray some telling passes and literally worked his ass off in winning the ball. While he wasn't really effective as a tackler, you could tell his intent desire to impress. As I've said time and again, he possesses the natural ability to make the big leap into a really good player, but as of right now, he's incredibly raw. Perhaps it would help if he played with the first team. At least the bulk of attention would be on the other players.

The other lads performed credibly. There's nothing much to praise or complain about. Johhny Evans and Gerald Pique were formidable as the central defensive pairing. Absolutely nothing got past them in the first half. Both were taken off in the second half. Johhny Evan in particular was outstanding. He certainly looked comfortable with the ball and his positioning was impeccable.

Perhaps the only downside to yesterday's game was the fact that I had to use the same dodgy Thai stream that had failed so miserably during the Inter game. This time the stream lasted a good 70 minutes, when it dropped. The timing was seriously unreal. The goals were scored on the 70th and 90th minutes and I missed them both.

In any case I'm glad to have caught our youngsters in action. I'm going out on a limb and saying that Johnny Evans looks every bit like a future star in the making. It's no wonder Roy Keane is so high on this youngster.