United v. Derby – Match Updates

By: Taylor Rockwell | January 7th, 2009

Final Whistle Goes – And United have just lost to the worst team in the history of the Premiership… and not only lost… They were outplayed throughout the entire second half… A disappointing match to say the least… Hopefully, this lights some fires for the Chelsea match this weekend… Hopefully…

94′ – Rooney draws a foul with no time left… freekick from 30… Slave is on the ball… And fires it over…

92′ – United with a freekick from 35-40 out… Carrick gets a head on it, but the ball goes straight into Roy Carroll’s hands…

89′ – John O’Shea doesn’t just want to lose by 1, so he dually gives away a corner… Vidic clears…

86′ – Great tackle by Raphael… Gotta give it to Derby… They’re still pushing forward… No buses will be parked in Pride Park tonight…

83′ – Derby with a breakaway… Lovely ball in from Green and Commons fires wide…

82′ – Now, despite being down TO DERBY, the United fans are mocking Liverpool… Awesome…

81′ – Dear United, THE LONG BALL ISN’T WORKING!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP PLAYING IT!!!

80′ – Tevez looks like he doesn’t want to be on the pitch tonight. Meanwhile, Derby having the run of play… they fire over the bar with an open net… should be 2-0…

76′ – Tevez pulled down about 20 yards from goal. Freekick United. Great take from Slave. I would have bet my life savings that it was going in… and it looked it too… sigh…

74′ – Anderson off. Carrick on. Fergie must really want to get the away win tonight. He’s definitely risking a fatigued side against Chelsea. Apparently, he is also none too thrilled about losing to Derby.

66′ – Setanta announcers were nice enough to remind me that Derby are near the bottom of the Coca-Cola Championship. Suddenly, the desire to open up some veins is even more plausible.

65′ – Raphael has looked as strong as ever this evening. On the flip side, I don’t know for certain which player was the most disappointing… perhaps a poll question for later?

61′ – Scholes and Welbeck off. Rooney and Slave on. Quite the substitution… I bet Derby is thrilled…

58′ – Derby substitution… I don’t really care who or why…

56′ – Note to United supporters in attendance… you should probably wait until later in the match, when you’re not losing in the first leg of an aggregate match, to begin singing “Take Me Home”… kinda unintentionally waving the white flag, right?

50′ – The United fans seems to have made up their minds, as songs for Rooney and Slave permeate the air…

Sorry about that… Internet has been going down all day… anyway, we’re back, it’s still 1-0, and I still hate life… at least for now…

45′ – If any of the United players forgot to pack a hair dryer, I’m pretty sure Fergie will be lending them one at halftime.

40 ‘ – And Nani is down with back-knack… don’t worry… he’ll be back in a few minutes to poorly cross the ball and lose headers…

36′ – Somebody did tell John O’Shea there was a game tonight, right? Anybody? What the hell is he doing out there? Along that line, I just realized Tevez is still on the pitch. Did anybody else not realize that?

33′ – Scholes again “fires” wide… a less than impressive start from the 34″ tall midfielder..

31′ – Scholes tries to answer but launches it over after standing around screaming for a pass for 20 minutes…

30′ – And Derby goes up 1-0… screamer strike from Chris Commons from about 20 out… Failbot has NO chance…

29′ – O’Shea shot blocked… I sigh loudly…

23′ – Nani seems to be thinking that he is Slave… he isn’t…

19′ – Gibson with a shot-cross that slides across the face of the goal… Welbeck was chasing but couldn’t get to it…

18′ – Nani surprised to find out that blatantly shoving someone in the back in front of the official is a foul…

14′ – Still not looking all that good… the continual bright spot is that the crowd appears to be 80% United supporters and 20% Derby fans… most of the noise is coming from the away section…

8′ – And now it’s Evans who saves one off the line… Derby pushing forward STRONGLY…

6′ – Failbot just saved our asses… poor defending saw a point-blank blast saved by the big Pole… United need to get it together…

0′ – And we’re off… COME ON YOU REDS!!! Game starts off with a foul on Nani and a semi-bicycle from Welbeck… this bodes well…

Ben Amos is the reserve goalkeeper. I must admit I’m a bit disappointed to not see Fabio or Manucho… but Welbeck netting a couple will pick me right up…

Lineup update: Bench is Possebon, Carrick, Fletcher, Giggs, Slave, and Rooney. It would appear Fergie wants to win this one early and make the second leg completely irrelevant… cause that is one hell of a bench!

So, this isn’t really going to be a live blog of any type, but I figured I would update the site periodically with pertinent info before, during, and after today’s match. Anyway, starting lineup has just been announced:

Polish Failbot
Rafael
Evans
Vidic
O’Shea
Gibson
Scholes
Anderson
Welbeck
Tevez
Nani

So, we’re going with a 4-3-3… not sure who’s on the bench… that could be very interesting. Also interesting as to what this lineup means for the Chelsea match (looks like midfield will be Fletcher, Carrick, Slave, and Park).