Wow! The only word I could say for the first hour after tonight’s match. Then the elation sank in as I realised what had just occurred before my eyes.

What’s that they always say about champions winning games when they don’t play well? That’s quite fitting in my opinion. We were pretty awful today. A bit better than against Fulham but that’s not saying much. It was a strange day with all of us knowing that a win was needed, not only to take back the lead in the title race, but also to curb this slide of form and get back on the horse, so to speak.

We took the lead after a silly back-pass from Milner to Friedel. Giggs laid it off to Ronaldo who curled into the back of the net. Villa had a man at the back post, but that man was Nicky Shorey, who’s quite small, so he had no real chance of reaching it.

After our goal however, Villa came storming back into the match. They equalized through John Carew who headed in a wonderful cross from Villa captain Gareth Barry. Villa looked really up for this game adn well deserved the lead when they took it, just short of the hour mark. A neat cross from Carew to Gabby Agbonlahor was headed in past VDS by the Vila youngster.

At this point, me and may mates (who were watching the match with me) were fuming, as I’m sure all other Man Utd fans were. I was especially fuming with Ron, whose dicking around gave Villa the ball for their second goal. But, United kept on chugging along, knowing that a goal was needed out of somewhere.

Ronaldo got his second of the game in the 80th minute when he shot from outside the box into the bottom corner. It wasn’t a great connection on the ball but that helped it, as the ball spun away from Friedel into the net. Game on. We all knew that this game was never going to end as a draw. One of these teams would win it, because so much was at stake for both teams.

Time ticked on, and both teams attacked with little result. Just as the injury time was being announced, I said that I didn’t expect there to be much, as there hadn’t been huge delays. But somehow, the ref plucked five minutes out his ass and it was announced. Sweet. Five minutes is a lot of time, and as it turned out more than we needed.

In the 93rd minute, a young man called Federico Macheda, who’d come on not long before and had had some nice touches throughout, was passed the ball at the edge of the box by Giggsy. Macheda backheeled the ball into his path and as he was falling launched the sweetest of shots into the far corner, just past Friedel. 3-2!

What a fucking goal! What an important goal! What a comeback! What a result!

After the Scousers scored a last minute winner at Fulham, we needed to win. And thanks in no small part to the seventeen year old Macheda, we did.

And a funny wee note, thanks to the Liverpool supporters who left some nice comments on my last post during the match. Just to say, probably shouldn’t taunt a team until you know they’ve lost, ‘cos you just look a bit silly when we’re back on top of the EPL.

A huge step towards winning our third EPL in a row, and equalling ‘Pool’s record. Can you smell it? We’re close. This win will be huge for belief, and shows that even with a depleted squad we have something worthwhile waiting in the wings. Take a bow, Federico Macheda.

Oh, and look at this, how could I forget?

(Photo of Macheda by Matthew Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)