Naive Fergie Pays The Price (Bolton 1 - Manchester United 0)
This defeat was a bitter pill to swallow. I had penciled in this fixture as an easy victory, especially considering the league table, the forms of both teams and previous head to heads. It didn't even matter if hat-trick hero of last season, Rooney, was injured or not.
Kentona and I were in jubilant mood, discussing how sweet it would be for Ronaldo to once again make Bolton his personal bitch, then the starting lineup dropped a bombshell. Once we saw the lineup and the substitutes bench all we could mutter was....Oh Fuck.
Fergie tried to shuffle the pack and gave Ronaldo a nights off after his Euro exploits. Obviously Fergie must have missed watching all the past videos of Ronaldo tormenting Bolton.
Anderson was benched and Pique was partnered with Rio. I would have preferred to have Brown's experience beside Rio and the opening goal by Anelka confirmed it.
The first half was probably and possibly the worst we've played this season. There was no passing and hardly any movement off the ball. It didn't help matters that Carrick and Hargreaves were placed at the heart in midfield. Both sat too deep and neither were there to pick things up when the loose balls fell in midfield.
It wasn't a surprise that Bolton scored an early goal. From a Campo freekick, Anelka trapped the ball and scored a clinical goal on the turn. Pique's lack of experience showed when he jumped for the ball and missed it completely, allowing Anelka the space.
One nil down and we didn't have anything to show. It was a disjointed display for a good 70 minutes. It didn't help that referee Clattenburg made a few non calls which eventually drove Fergie to the stands with his rantings. On the night, it didn't matter. The damage was done before the ball was even kicked.
How Kevin Davies stayed on the pitch in the first half remains a mystery to me. He had committed enough fouls in the first half for the referee to send him off twice. The second non call was for a blatant handball in the penalty area that denied us a spot kick. It looked blatantly obvious to me that Gardner had delibrately handled the ball in the area in the second half, but neither the linesman nor the referee saw fit to call it.
The last 20 minutes was a much much better display with more urgency shown. Alot had to do with Anderson coming on and providing that thrust from midfield. We came desperately close to equalizing but in the end it simply wasn't enough.
I suppose to sum it up, the statistics told the story today. We only had 3 miserable shots on target. The makeshift team we put on the pitch just wasn't good enough.
I'll probably be missing the next Premiership game against Fulham. I'd be taking a short and well needed break in Korea. The markets have been killing me since August and a break is needed to rejuvenate the spirit. More importantly the break will prevent me from making any more trades, before I lose my pants!
Boston Celtics
This probably needs a thread on its own, but I'm feeling rather lazy so I'll lump it here as well. The Boston Celtics look really good this season. The big three of Pierce, Garnett and Allen have meshed together faster than I would have expected. If they last the distance, there is a geniune chance of actually winning it all this season! Of course I've just jinxed the team by mentioning it.
'Tione - All Star
Again this needs to have a post on its own, but I'm really lazy tonight.
There's an on-going campaign to vote former Celtic Antoine Walker into the starting 5 for the NBA All Stars and many bloggers have jumped on the bandwagon. For those of you who are clueless, the NBA All Star voting is nothing but a glorifed popularity contest. It's not the best players that get to play, but the most popular.
The whole campaign is to make a mickey of the current system by voting in Walker....who used to be good. This is taken from the original source why Walker was picked for this:
- He's a funny dude.
- Exemplifies the average american - lazy, overweight, and working just hard enough to collect his paycheck.
- Who doesn't want to see the shimmy in the 2008 all-star game?
