Late Late Winner Keeps United On Track

Manchester United 1 - Sunderland 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Vidic (90)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Fletcher (Anderson 68), Park (Tevez 58), Ronaldo (Giggs 68), Rooney, Berbatov

What an incredible game. For a full 90 minutes we were knocking on Sunderland's door but couldn't find a way thru. And just when a 0-0 result looked on the cards, Vidic's last gasp winner brought on a sigh of relief that could be felt from Singapore to Manchester.

The day started with facing a rudderless Sunderland, who were low on confidence and even lower in quality. It's no wonder Keano decided to jump ship. Sunderland are easily the worst team I've seen this season by a huge huge margin. They couldn't string 3 passes together to save their lives.

Against such weak opponents, we completely dominated the game but yet were not able to find a way past their 10 defenders. Fulop was excellent in goal and the men in front of him were dogged in their task to deny us the points. 4-goal hero from midweek, Tevez, was brought on in the second half to provide much needed firepower but we were still lacking the killer punch.

As the game wore on, United grew more desperate. With the front runners in the title race all getting 3 points, it was imperative that we kept up the chase and it just wasn't looking likely today. Ronaldo's injury today and with suspensions looming over Evra and Rooney, who got his 5th yellow today, we could ill afford to drop points.

In the last few minutes of the game, we threw Vidic upfront as an extra body forward and the gamble paid off in the most dramatic fashion. Just as the final whistle looked more likely than a United goal, Carrick's long rage shot wickedly deflected onto the inside of the post and back onto Vidic's path. And he struck a dagger into the Sunderland hearts that sent Old Trafford into spasms of euphoria.

I don't know if we deserved the victory, but we deserved something for all the grunt work put in today. We outworked our opponents in every aspect of the game. Every man on the pitch carried his own load, even the normally anonymous Carrick. This was truely a team victory if there ever was one.