United Lose League In Style...

United Lose League In Style... 09/05/2010

There was certainly no favours done at the Bridge, but The Reds ended on a good note

Match Report - United 4-0 Stoke City

Competition: Barclays Premier League
Kick-Off & Date: 4pm, Sunday 9th May
Venue: Old Trafford (Home)
Attendance: 75,316

The Reds pretty much knew within 6 minutes that Chelsea had more or less won the Premier League for the first time in four seasons, but United kept their heads up, and despite the Blues going further and further ahead, Sir Alex's men put four past a helpless Stoke City side.

Many dreamt of a fairytale twist, but it wasn't to be as Carlo Ancelotti's men fired 8 past a useless Wigan Athletic - Didier Drogba getting 3 to bag the Barclays Golden Boot, with three more goals scored than Wayne Rooney. Despite all the gloom for United fans, we did very well.

Luis Nani and Dimitar Berbatov did fantastic throughout, but Wayne Rooney, injured inside the first 15 minutes, limped on and deservedly earned man-of-the-match. United started-out well, despite the crowd being a little under-voice - but Darren Fletcher gave us something to sing about... for a minute. From Ryan Giggs' corner, Nemanja Vidic headed but the ball landed short of the goal before Fletcher fired-in from close range.

Fletch scores with 31 minutes gone...

However, just a minute later Frank Lampard put Chelski 2 goals to the good with a penalty. It was over as soon as it had started. It didn't really matter if Nicolas Anelka was offside for the first goal, or that Lampard dived to get Gary Caldwell sent-off and receive a peno... the Blues put six more past Wigan anyway !

Then six minutes later, in the 37th: Giggs made it 2-0 to United. Rooney fired a ball up to Berba - the Bulgarian cued to Nani inside the box, but he missed. However Giggs was on hand to fire past Asmir Begovic in the Stoke goal.

After the break, The Reds had a little more urgency, and less than ten minutes into the second-half - a Danny Higginbotham own-goal gave United the third goal. A nicely worked move by Fletcher ended-up with Rooney, he passed to Nani in the six-yard box, but before the Portuguese could convert - Higginbotham slid the ball into his own net.

Giggs thanks Berba for the set-up, 37th minute...

Higginbotham converts an OG, Nani celebrates

Chelsea were cruising at Stamford Bridge, and obviously United fans were pretty upset - but at that stage, they were more upset about the Glazer family !

Meanwhile, Sir Alex made some changes; Berbatov, who played very well, for Kiko Macheda and Paul Scholes replaced by Darron Gibson. A short time afterwards Ji-Sung Park came on for Rooney - who had again tweaked his groin.

Park immediately made an impact, in the 83rd minute - Giggs swung-in a corner and Park threw his head at the ball scoring back post. Something to shout about !

GO, GO, GO - GLAZERS OUT NOW !

Fans can be proud of United, but not as proud as Chelski fans can be about their team. We just weren't good enough - especially against the Blues themselves. Forget about referees and linesmen - it just wasn't our season....

LOOK AWAY NOW IF YOU ARE IN ANY WAY SENSITIVE !