retired_sachin_g006

Results:
2/10: Prem - A - Everton 4-2 (Scholes, Saha 2, G.Neville)
14/10: Prem - H - Portsmouth - 2-1 (Saha, Bent)
17/10: Champs League - A - Benfica 2-0 (Saha, Scholes)
21/10: Prem - A - Aston Villa 1-1 (Saha)
25/10: League Cup 3rd Round - H - Nottingham Forest 0-2
28/10: Prem - H - Charlton 2-2 (Saha, Lennon)

Prem: 2nd
Champs League: 1st in Group
League Cup: Knocked out 3rd Round

Top Scorers: Saha 12
Torres 4
Bent 2
Scholes 2
Ronaldo 1
G.Neville 1
Lennon 1
OG 1

retired_sachin_g006

31st October:[b]1st November: With Rooney back and fit I decided to place him straight into the starting line up for the Benfica game,

1st November: Manchester United v Benfica:
Line up: Van Der Saar, G.Neville, Silvestre, Hienze, O’Shea, Ronaldo, Giggs, Fletcher, Lennon, Rooney, Saha

I made sure the players knew that a win tonight and they would be in the next round and it was there chance to get revenge on Benfica for what they did last year…

The game started and the players looked well up for it, with us dominating from the start and it didn’t take long for us to score with Lennon setting Saha up on the 6th minute. The game carried on we scored on the 28th minute yet again through Saha who was on a very rich vain of form, Benfica looked shell shocked. Saha completed his hat trick on the 31st minute to make it 3-0. Things got worse for Benfica as 3 minutes later the goalie fumbled an easy shot into the net, with the keeper’s confidence shattered by the recent few minutes he made a rash challenge on Fletcher to bring him down and concede a penalty… With everyone looking at Saha to the penalty he picked the ball up and gave it to Rooney, Rooney duly thanked him with a thunderous penalty into the net on the 37th minute, as we went into the half time break we was 5-0 up.
What could I say to the players they knew how happy I was and I just told them to enjoy the rest of the match and entertain the fans, which they did as we completely dominated the rest of the match. With Lennon setting up Rooney on the 79th minute who scored a perfectly placed ball into the back of the net, then with the clock running down Rooney completed his hat trick on the 88th minute. What a game the best win in my short management career and the fans had started to sing my name:

Manchester United 7 – 0 Benfica (Saha 6, 28, 31, OG 34, Rooney Pen 37, 79, 88)

retired_sachin_g006

2nd November: With the superb result from the previous night the papers were making us favourites to win the cup, I told them if we perorm like we did against Benfica I cant see no reason why we cant. The main question is who we would get in the next round, all I knew for sure is that we wouldnt meet the likes of Barcelona or Real Madrid in the next round as they had both won there groups

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5th November: Blackburn v Manchester United
With the Benfica game still fresh in the players mind they seemed up for anything, but the euphoria soon disappeared as Blackburn scored early in the game .That goal was a shock and Blackburn sensed this, they were winning everything and nearly scored again but for a superb save from the diving Van Der Saar. Yet again Van Der Saar saved our skin after Pedersen nearly scored from a great free kick that G.Neville had conceded. Everything we tried didn’t pay off till on the stroke of half time G.Neville equalised with rasping shot, that was his 2nd goal of the season. Maybe I should play him in attack?
The second half was probably the worst 45 minutes of play I had ever seen, with neither team looking as though they could be bothered to attack, luckily for us Chelsea had copied our result away to Fulham so we didn’t lose any ground, but this performance wasn’t good enough..

Blackburn 1 – 1 Manchester United (G.Neville 45)

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8th November: Bolton v Manchester United
Another away game and another local derby, with the Chelsea game already finished we knew we had to win to keep pace.
The game started like a typical derby, with a very high tempo and some tough tackling, but nothing to bad.
It was complete end to end football with both sides testing the opposition goalie, but with both goalies in fine form and some dodgy finishing on top it seemed as though it was going to be one of those days, but after just over 30 minutes Carrick rounded the goalie to slot the ball into an open net to send the away fans mad and the home fans silent, the breakthrough we needed as we dominated the rest of the first half.

The second half started much as the first half did, we started to control the passing and after 62 minutes Hienze scored with a bullet of a header to make it 2-0, but as has happened a lot with my team we lost concentration and Davies scored 10 minutes later to set up a nervous finish for me and the fans

Bolton 1 – 2 Manchester United (Carrick 34, Hienze 62)

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9th November: A good win against a resolute Bolton team was just what the players needed as they left for the international break, hopefully they would all come back fit and ready for a tough game away to Arsenal

16th November: With the internationals finished all the players were back in training fit and ready for Arsenal, But they knew it wasn’t going to be a pushover as Arsenal hadn’t lost at there new stadium yet

18th November: Arsenal v Manchester United
The game couldn’t of started any worse as after only 39 seconds Van Persie sent a rasping cross come shot into the 6 yard box for G.Neville to send high into his own net, the Arsenal fans were loving it, Arsenal from then on controlled the midfield and therefore the game, we couldn’t get a touch on the ball, after 37 minutes Arsenal should of doubled there lead and if it wasn’t for Heroics by Hienze on the goal line they would of. Lady luck was definitely on our side as just before the break Henry fired a beauty into the net to make it 2-0 to the Arsenal. I told the players they should be ashamed of themselves as they were being shown how to play football.
The second half wasn’t much better either as Arsenal peppered our goal with shot after shot, the only consolation was a 90th minute strike by Ronaldo but it was too little to late and we lost

Arsenal 2 – 1 Manchester United (Ronaldo 90)

19th November: A very bad result against Arsenal put them into second place in the league and above us, the confidence seemed a little low as our league form had not been convincing as of late, but we had to buck our ideas up as we had a Champions League game against Dinamo Kiev midweek

21st November: Manchester United v Dinamo Kiev
With us already qualified I told the players to make sure they kept the ball and enjoyed the match, I wanted them to give the crowd something to scream about,
The players in the first half seemed a little nervous and the passing was wayward but as the game went on there confidence grew and things started to go there way, but with it 0-0 at half time I could see some of the players looking down.
With the half time team talk still in there heads they started well and it only took 90 seconds for Giggs to score a free kick from 18 yards to put us 1-0 up. That goal changed the game and our players seemed to enjoy the rest of the half with Fletcher finding the net on 66 minutes to wrap the game up for us, the perfect reply to the disappointment of losing to Arsenal, hopefully this was the start of our revival

Manchester United 2 – 0 Dinamo Kiev (Giggs 46, Fletcher 66)

retired_lorraine jones

Brilliant Story Loving the read also considering a bid for Saha in my Arsenal Season. KUTGW

retired_sachin_g006

thamks tommy_bcfc would recommened Saha been brilliant for me in this season and the season im on now

retired_sachin_g006

22nd November: Our Champions League group had been sorted with us winning the group and Lyon finishing second; it was just a case of waiting to see who we got in the next round.

25th November: Manchester United v Wigan
The players seemed to be getting more confident after the last game and it showed as we started the game strong, causing the Wigan defence no end of problems, there goalie however was in magnificent form and was stopping every shot with every bit of his body, and we did find a way through the damn post got in the way or a defender put his body in the way, at half time I knew something had to change, we weren’t playing bad in fact we playing brilliantly but our luck needed to change.
Within 12 minutes of the restart our luck did change with Saha putting us ahead by scoring the rebound off a Giggs shot. W e continued our dominance and it wasn’t long before we doubled our lead through Torres who slotted home after 75 minutes. The game ended 2-0 but should easily have been 6 or 7.
Manchester United 2 – 0 Wigan (Saha 57, Torres 75)

26th November: A great week with wins against Wigan and Kiev, maybe we had turned the corner. Next up Fulham away

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29th November: Fulham v Manchester United
The confidence was high and it showed in the early stages of the game with us dominating the Fulham team and with Saha on his old stomping ground it wasn’t long before he showed the home fans what the were missing as he converted a brilliant penalty to make it 1-0, he then hit the post after 20 minutes and was playing out of his skin. Then out of nowhere Fulham put a ball over the top for Boa Morte to equalise on the 32nd minute, this seemed to knock our players for 6 as Fulham scored again 4 minutes later to take them into the half time break 2-1 up.
I wasn’t happy with our lack of concentration for the second goal and the players received the full hair dryer experience.
The second half was a dull affair with Fulham seemingly going defensive to try and keep all 3 points but this back fired on them as on the 81st minute Saha again scored to gain us a point, but this was a poor game and even though there was 4 goals the fans must have been bored out there brain
Fulham 2 – 2 Manchester United (Saha pen 13, 81)

30th November: The board meeting went ok but the chairman was still concerned about the gap between us and Chelsea, I was more worried about the fact in some matches we was struggling to kill seemingly easy teams off, this was something I was going to have to sort out…