A certain Shepherd must be further ruing the day Rooney turned down the chance to join his flock. Manchester United beat Newcastle United 3-1 at St. James’ Park with the Boy Wonder contributing two goals. (Reports: BBC, Soccernet, Guardian, ManUtd.com)
Some notes:
- Both sides went forward with gusto and the score shouldn’t be construed as being an indication of the Red Devils’ overwhelming superiority. Newcastle had the advantage for long stretches of the match and it was by no means an easy win for the Mancunians. If Kluivert and Shearer were more clinical with the chances they had, Ferguson would have been the one ruing the day.
- United got an early lead when Rooney got on the end of an excellent Fletcher chip and produced a fantastic finish to beat Shay Given.
- The score remained the same until the 71st minute. Brown stumbled and lost the ball to Shearer who got clear after Heinze (not for the first time in the match) lost his footing as well. The King of the Geordie Nation made the best of this bit of good fortune by slotting the ball past Carroll to level the score.
- Newcastle’s joy was short-lived however. Three minutes later, van Nistelrooy fired home a penalty after Scholes was brought down in the box by Given.
- Rooney made the scoreline look a little more impressive by slotting home his second close to the end of the match.
- United are now in seventh place and 11 points off the pace. Embarrassingly, the Red Devils remain behind Everton, Bolton, Middlesbrough and Aston Villa.
- Ronaldo’s teamplay wasn’t too impressive in this match. On two occasions, he went for goal rather than lay the ball off to a teammate in a better position. Wilf McGuinness noted the young Portuguese player’s decision-making needs improving but I think this has more to do with Ronaldo desperately wanting to get his first goal of the season.
- Ferguson is still tinkering with his team selection and tactics. It was almost a 4-3-3 in this match with Rooney and Ronaldo frequently joining van Nistelrooy from the flanks. The most interesting aspect of this formation was that Ferguson finally found a place in the starting eleven for Fletcher who certainly justified his selection with his performance.
