Fulham 1 Manchester United 1
Saturday 28th February
Loftus Road, London
Manchester United moved even further away from the Premiership trophy after dropping yet more points on Saturday. They now lie NINE points behind an Arsenal team that have yet to lose a game this season. That gap is massive considering that there are now only 11 games to go. Funnily enough, however, United have more points now than they had after this many games last season, when they won the league!
United started the Fulham game with a new first team line-up: Howard was rested in goals, whilst Giggs and Van Nistelrooy were mysteriously "Rested" when United don't even have a game mid-week. With the absence of any serious defenders, Keane stepped back to Central defence alongside the much-criticised Wes Brown.
From the starting whistle United immediately began to put the pressure on. Saha had a chance to score after just ten seconds, but was unable to force the ball past his old team-mate, Van Der Sar, the Fulham goalkeeper.
United attacked for the first fifteen minutes, keeping the pressure on Fulham. They had the usual edge to their play that suggested they were going to win by quite a margin, and were completely dominating the game. It came as no surprise when Saha opened the scoring for the Reds after 14 minutes. Roy Carroll had caught the ball from a Fulham cross, and instantly turned defence into attack. He launched the ball to the feet of Crisiano Ronaldo, who's inch-perfect through ball set Saha free through the middle. There was so much space between Fulham's two central defenders that Saha had time to sprint through them, before firing the ball past the keeper from 18 yards. It was a goal that show-cased Saha's pace, power and precision, and a sign of great things to come from the Frenchman.
At this stage of the game, everyone expected United to add to their lead, but, no matter what happened, the Reds simply couldn't get the ball into the net a second time. They had countless chances to score, but the side were let down by an off pass or a miss-hit shot.
Ronaldo, who was probably United's man of the match, raced around the park, completely mesmerising the Fulham defence at times, but, it seems that Ronaldo is a winger in the Giggs mould in that he can't shoot.
As is typical of United in recent weeks, they completely dominated the game, should have killed off the opposition by half-time, but were left wondering what hit them when they conceded a goal. In one of Fulham's only chances, Luis Boa Morte managed to get in front of Wes Brown, and squeeze the ball under, and through the legs of, Roy Carroll.
The soft goal could have been better defended, but then, the attackers should have scored a hatful of goals, so the whole team is guilty of under performing.
Undeterred, United went back on the rampage, creating even more chances in a frantic last half-hour.
Just when it appeared that United were on to something, Saha was brought down on his way to scoring a goal. Instead of sending off the Fulham keeper, and awarding a United penalty, the Referee made one of the worst refereeing decisions of the season. The Ref must have been the only person in the stadium that didn't think it was a penalty, and the decision caused such outrage from the United squad that Ruud van Nistelrooy was booked for his reaction when he was warming up to come on as a substitute.
Fulham: Van der Sar, Volz, Goma, Pearce, Green, Malbranque (Inamoto 80), Sean Davis, Legwinski, McBride, Petta (Pembridge 66), Boa Morte. Subs Not Used: Crossley, Knight, Rehman. Booked: Sean Davis.
Man Utd: Carroll, O'Shea, Keane, Brown, Fortune, Fletcher (Giggs 72), Scholes, Phil Neville, Ronaldo, Saha, Forlan (van Nistelrooy 72). Subs Not Used: Howard, Bellion, Djemba-Djemba. Booked: Brown, Forlan, van Nistelrooy.
Attendance: 18,306 Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).