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Wes Brown’s headed goal enough to see-off Crawley at Old Trafford

Match Report – Manchester United 1-0 Crawley Town

Competition
: FA Cup, 5th Round
Kick-Off & Date: 5:15pm, Saturday 19th February 
Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester (Home)  
Attendance: 74,778


Manchester United managed to hold-off pressure from non-league side Crawley Town in The FA Cup 5 Round at Old Trafford. The Red Devils go through to the 6th Round thanks to a 28th minute headed goal from skipper Wes Brown, after Darron Gibson had sent-in a sublime cross. But it was the visitors who had most of the possesion at a packed Theatre Of Dreams, on front of thousands of travelling fans and millions of TV viewers worldwide… Losing 1-0 to United ? – There’s no great shame in that… 

Wes Brown made a rare start for the home side, with Sir Alex Ferguson selecting the local defender as captain. Anders Lindegaard made his Old Trafford debut, with John O’Shea filling-in on front of the tall Dane. Brothers Rafael and Fabio Da Silva controlled the flanks, while Michael Carrick and Darron Gibson started in midfield. Oliveira Anderson played off the pair, with Gabriel Obertan and Bébé acting as wingmen. Chicharito started as lone striker.

Right from the kick-off, Crawley Town didn’t disappoint their travelling fans with a spirited and in-your-face attitude. Manager Steve Evans lived every pass from the sidelines, and had a word or two with the fourth official. Willie Gibson and Sergio Torres worked hard in midfield, with Matthew Tubbs looking to test Lindegaard in the early stages. Ben Smith was closest to opening the scoring for the Sussex club, but Lindegaard held his nerve. 

However, the class between the two sides was exposed from set pieces, with Crawley failing to make anything of corners, throw-ins or free-kicks. Darron Gibson – on the other hand – was playing a blinder for United, making fantastic crosses, passes and through balls from his centre position. It wasn’t long before his influence paid dividends…

From a corner, Gibson played a short ball to Gabby Obertan, who returned the favour. The Irishman’s cross was inch-perfect – finding the head of skipper Wes Brown on the edge of the six-yard box, gliding past Crawley Town’s defence and goalkeeper Michel Kuipers. In only his 9th appearance this season, Brown stepped-up to the occasion with deadly effect on 28 minutes – grabbing only his 5th goal for the club.  
Wes Brown puts United ahead on 28 minutes at Old Trafford

Gibson continued in sensational form, controlling the midfield. It was a mystery how Sir Alex’s men went into the break with only a goal to their name. Chicharito and Obertan had come tantalisingly close to opening the floodgates on many occasions – but Crawley held-out solidly. After the break, cue Wayne Rooney in place of Anderson… 

But it wasn’t Rooney who made any impact, instead Chris Smalling – replacing Rafael 10 minutes after the break – brought a calmness to United’s defence. Steve Evans’ side had the majority of the chances early in the second half, with Bébé and Obertan disappointing on the flanks for the home team. Darren Fletcher had to come in for an injured Fabio, who had earlier missed a glorious goal-mouth chance, moving to a relatively unfamiliar position at left-back. 

The introduction of United’s third substitute meant the three youngsters on the bench – Josh King, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Paul Pogba – failed to make debuts. It was a rare mistake by Sir Alex, allowing The Red’s two wingers to deteriorate. 
9,000 Crawley Town fans made the trip to Manchester

David Hunt set the alarm bells ringing for United, when he was allowed space to get a shot away in the box. But Fergie’s Red Army failed to respond, with Matt Tubbs coming close to scoring an ironic goal against Lindegaard when his bicycle kick went cm’s over the bar. Unfortunately for Crawley, it lacked the clinical strike-power of Rooney’s Manchester Derby winner. 

Steve Evans and ‘The Red Devil’ fans has the last shout, when substitute Richard Brodie hit the crossbar with a header in the last minute. But United held-out, and booked their place rather shamefully in the 6th Round of The FA Cup. Sir Alex’s men have a great opportunity to do the treble this season, but will want to vastly improve on current showings.

Nonetheless, a win is a win, isn’t it ?… 
 

United Team: Anders Lindegaard, Wes Brown, Fabio Da Silva (Darren Fletcher ’69), Rafael Da Silva (Chris Smalling ’54), John O’Shea, Oliveira Anderson (Wayne Rooney ’46), Michael Carrick, Gabriel Obertan, Darron Gibson, Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez, Bébé.

Goal(s): Brown ’28
Bookings: Brown ’83, Rooney ’89

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Comments

Malkster

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 7:14:53 pm

Fair play to Crawley they played well but yet again proved a lot of our second string are just not up to standard ie/ Gibson,obertan,bebe I really don’t think they have a future at utd

 

Skemdevil

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 7:17:54 pm

I agree bebe was awful. Positives were the twins and wes. Keeper not tested yet to judge him proper. Gibson is poooooooo!

 

GAZZARO

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 7:26:53 pm

VERY POOR PERFORMANCE AGAINST A NON-LEAGUE SIDE REALLY!!!…

It’s another example to show we MUST bring in top class players, and eliminate players like Obertan, Bebe, Carrick, Evans, etc. They are not EPL class players at all. For Bebe in particular, How can we paid 7.6 million for a player with this kind of poor quality??? Tottenham paid a similar amount at the same time to get VDV!!! …. WHY???

 

Baldrick

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 7:40:30 pm

We were shite.
We Won.
’nuff said.

 

borba

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 7:46:59 pm

United look like they bored and not interested

 

Bird

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 7:48:41 pm

Have to say that I was so mad watching that performance. JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
That performance was an insult to the fans who paid good money to go to OT and to the tradition of the club.There are fans in the stands who can play better than Obertan and Bebe. Surley Fergie can see the lack of quality in these players.

 

Sean 123 Mufc

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 7:51:17 pm

well Bebe a waste of space . he should never had brought Rooney you cant expect Rooney to play with an average team . i would of pit Berbatov on the bench instead of Rooney also why was U TV Showing a Crawley fan all night it was doing my head in

 

Bernard

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 8:33:24 pm

Absolutely disgusting performance. The summer can’t come soon enough and get rid of some of this deadwood. £27 to watch that is basically stealing. Bebe, Obertan, Carrick, Gibson. Out played and out enthused by players who will never see a national team let alone play for one!

Rant over bring on Marseille.

 

Paul Manu till I die

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 8:46:02 pm

Disgrace, shameful there is no pride in this manu team all season they have been well below par fairplay to crawley but even still no matter how up for it they were Manu is an international force all the hard work all the players and fans have done to make united hat they for these players to play how they do they should look at them selves and hang there head in shame and be paid on there performance on the field not for what they have been doing at the end of the day they still get their thousands every week were the honour in wearing the red off our beloved team this is not the Manu that we have grown up with and love just as much as our family

 

Matty

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 8:58:50 pm

A wins a win, come on that’s all that matter.

 

Ranks

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 9:04:42 pm

You just have to say well done Crawley, they really were up for it and didn’t let us settle with the ball, always harried the United man in possession. Some of our players missed an opportunity to shine and show the boss they are United quality, but u have to say it was also credit to the Crawley players for snuffing them out

 

Kealy

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 9:38:21 pm

@ Sean 123 mufc ur so right why that one supporter the whole game:L poor performance but a win is a win!:) roll on champions league!

 

Sean 123 Mufc

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 9:46:22 pm

@ kealy i wonder was he Gareth Southgate
son . maybe Gareth saw and told them to put him on all night . he was born in Crawley and lived there anyway who ever he was that will be the last time he on the TV .

 

Kealy

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 9:52:05 pm

@ Sean 123 mufc he cud be but who cares:P the main thing is the victory 🙂

 

Sean 123 Mufc

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 9:55:46 pm

spot on kealy

 

Dazbomber

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 9:56:00 pm

we won fuck it

 

Kealy

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 9:58:43 pm

Dazbomber , calm:P

 

Dante (United Lounge)

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 10:19:50 pm

Your views on the game are most welcome over on the forum (http://tinyurl.com/6cyswkl), though they probably consist of mostly dejected sighs and exasperated grunts given the shower we just witnessed

 

bebe your shit

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 10:38:35 pm

got to say spirited performance by crawley but out performance was awful and bebe was pure shit and we paid 7 million for him we could of got van der vaart for 1 million more looks like a clearance in the summer I hope

 

Sean 123 Mufc

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 11:55:49 pm

Why did we buy Bebe fergie never saw him play never herd of him were as he could signed Van der vART FOR THE SAME MONEY AND ONLY HAD TO PAY a Bit EXTRA FOR Ozil . why fergie why cant wait for the summer lets win 19 ugly and Champions league then buy some players who have a heart for Manchester United and some Sexy Football please

 

Luke

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:24:49 am

Poor performance, Bebe and Obertan were awful. MOTM for me was Brown

 

Evra contract?

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 2:03:20 am

Did evra sign a new contract or what because I heard he signed a new 3 year contract.

 

borba

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 7:40:05 am

this game was a tryout for some players and it looks like those players won’t be playing for united next season.

 

Mark W.

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 8:37:45 am

A very shaky result but a win’s a win. Crawley gave us a game in the second half and you could tell we weren’t expecting that. Thankfully that didn’t cost us a replay because another game is the last thing we need right now. Wes Brown was fantastic and scored a brilliant header. Hopefully Fergie can get him into more games for the remainder of this season because his experience could be very beneficial.

 

Chris m

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 9:57:53 am

We need to remember some things tho first of all we won the game,lets not forget the crawly lads all play together week in week out wer as our team was a throw together not like these lads get to play competitve matches as a team very often so jst bear in mind the team we put out yestday laks exp and playing time as a team so i thnk its a gr8 result even against crawly bearin in mind our team selection yes bebe was poor but he needs time thnk he could do wi a fuul season loand in prem leag i thought gibson was fantastic too

 

LackyMUFC

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 11:41:25 am

I was at the game and i must admit that Bebe was nothing short of awful! I seen hin against wolves last year too and hoped he’d get better but he seems to have for 50 times worse! Obertans not up to scratch either, he seemed better wen we 1st bought him! A win may be a win but its still a concern when u see your second string (with some regulars) play ao awful! Oh and Crawley were shit, we just made them look good!

 

Paulo83

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 11:42:30 am

Bebe what a player ha ha ha what a waste of wedge obertan looks like an ethiopean sprinter but a shite version and leave Gibson alone he ain’t that bad let’s buy big in da summer modric reina kaka ronaldo ( not likely but we can dream )

 

Grumpy

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 11:49:03 am

Left at half time…..

 

Sean 123 MUFC

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:08:49 pm

i have being to the shop to buy the News OF THE WORLD . AND I HAVE read it and says Man united want Mordic for 35 million after yesterday game i think we should break the bank even if they turn it down we have to our team is Rubbish

 

Darren

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 1:19:56 pm

I usually stand by United players through thick and thin, but Bebe is SHITE.

 

StevO

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 1:25:20 pm

I’ll have to agree with most of the views above the Beverly wasn’t up to scratch. May I ask all our fans to be patient with him. Just like Nani a few yrs ago, I figured Bebe needs abt 3 seasons to mature. Give him some time.

 

Chris m

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 2:35:46 pm

I agree bebe wasnt so hot yestday but in otha games iv seen he looks gr8 realy fast explosive winger i thought it was jst his crossing letin him down jst like nanis first two seasons

 

Patch

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 3:59:38 pm

Everyones slagging Gibson but to be honest I thought he ws our best player. Some quality weighted passes an if the players that were receiving he’s passes were better the score wd of bin a lot more…

 

Anon

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 5:02:04 pm

dat guy called bebe has no football brains…his skull is full of meat with a tiny peanut of football brains on top. as for dat long headed obertan the lest said abt him the better. who’s the father of Gib. he is no fit for a manchester snup, Gib-son~! apooootooh
Fergie export them to play cricket for someother planet! im sick of such

 



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