Manchester United V Fulham FC: 3 - 2

First game in the premiership and it's away to Manchester United the title holders! Fulham haven't been in the top league since since I could crawl, and although they cruised through to the championship of the Nationwide First Division 2000/2001 a lot of speculation has been concerned about the quality of players Fulham possess in the premiership. Saha answered any criticisms within the first 5 minutes of the kick off at Old Trafford when he got onto a long ball from Sean Davis and chipped Fabian Bartez. Absolute perfection! An already loud Fulham support became jubilant and practically silenced the United supporters.

I had travelled up to Manchester with two pals who are London Reds, Tony Jayms and Reg Schrader (The Asian Sid James on crack.). A friend of Reg had got some spare tickets to the game and I simply had to go. Unfortunately for me the tickets were in the United end! However the seats where brilliant, we didn't see a lot of the game at the far end as we were so near the pitch - third row from the front - but the feeling was electric when play was near the near goal. We sat to the right of the Fulham supporters, to the left of the goal Fulham defended in the first half.

This seat also gave me an excellent view of the Finnan tackle on Giggs that got awarded a free kick and led to Mancheatters Uniteds first goal. As all the newspapers agreed the next, it should never have been a free kick and the tackle was good and fair. Anyway, Beckham scores with a great delivery, but he celebrated by running over to the away supporters which I thought a bit much, and we eventually go into half time 1-1.

The second half started just like the first and Saha got onto a ball from Malbranque (I think), and slotted home a corker. Once again Fulham expose Uniteds frail defence with a simple ball. At this point I think I'm going to die of happiness, and trying to stay quiet amongst the United fans.

Okay let's get it over with...then Van Nistelroy goes and scores two scrappy looking goals for United (it was the other end). 3-2. Fulham never give up and I really couldn't understand why so many United supporters left early when another goal could easily have come.

United tried to keep the ball for the rest of tha game, but the whites never gave in, and United responded by flooring Steed, and the ref doesn't even blow his whistle, let alone give the red card it deserved. The deserved third (and fourth) goal didn't come for us, and we left without points, but with honour and respect.

Overall Fulham dominated large portions of the game both on the pitch and with the voracious support through-out the game who out-sang, out-chanted and were much funnier than the insipid United support which didn't really get started until they took the lead. One of the funniest things I heard was during the second half when the FFC fans started "Shhhhhhhh", as the Man U fans were just so quiet. Other great moments at the begining of the game with "Who put the ball inn the Carlisle net? Rodney McAree!" and "there's only one Simon Morgon!" Lets hope we out play, out support but most importantly out score them next time we play.

The players

• Edwin Van Der Sar
• Steve Finnan
• Andy Melville
• Alain Goma
• Jon Harley
• Sean Davis - great work with all the mid fielders
• John Collins - great work
• Steed Malbranque - Simply brilliant
• Bjarne Goldbaek - never stopped running
• Barry Hayles - looked good
• Louis Saha (scored 2: 5 mins and 49 mins)
  Subs used: (I think...)
• Abdeslam Ouaddou
• Kevin Betsy

Kick Racism Out Of Football
Lets just say United haven't. I was sat in CC 126 and towards the end of the game when Fulham were pressuring again, the cretin behind me started calling Barry Hayles racist names and said who's that n***** about one of the subs.

Staying in Manchester
If you are staying in the Britannia Hotel, Portland Street, Manchester a skylight isn't going to give you the panoramic view one may hope for. What you really get is a windowless prison cell with said skylight in an alcove about 20 foot above your head. It was £39.50 a night though, so all-in-all quite acceptable.
 
Myth 1. All 'Northerners' are friendly. In the smaller towns like Knutford, Wilmslow etc I've met a lot of really nice people, and in Liverpool I've always had a nice reception and a laugh with the locals. In Manchester some peoples face would split if they had to say as much as please, thank you or you're welcome...and this is just getting breakfast at the bloody hotel !
 
Myth 2. Manchester United are only supported by non locals. Not true, while Manchester do have a loyal fan base from outside of the city, they also have a large local population that do support Man Untd.
 
Myth 3. Manchester is full of pretty girls. Saw a few corkers around the more pleasant and trendy bars. Without exception none came from Manchester, but where either tourists or students. Perhaps it was a bad couple of days, but I saw some of the ugliest most inbred people I have ever had the misfortune to glance at, some making the slack jaw and no-chin of the hillbilly Simpsons character look perfectly normal.
 
Myth 4. Manchester is a cultural city. Ha!
 
Some good points
A great China Town area.
Friendly gay area (not that I ... etc etc etc ;) )
One of the best Thai meals I've ever had...have to see CC bill for address.
Deansgate is pleasant.
The Revolution bar is good, one is opening in Soho, London soon, though I expect that'll be full of 'suits' & Soho tourists (morons who come up from the suburbs & to the West End to get pissed and fight) and lose what makes the Manchester branch nice.
Cheap beer (compared to Covent Garden where I live and Soho where I work!)

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