Sorry you have to see this twice.
Before I start mourning to you about the result of our opening fixture, let me make it clear that I think this was more of a point gained than 2 points dropped. This Newcastle United was not the one we have been battering season in season out for the past decade or so. This was a team that had a similar spirit to that Newcastle team that thrashed us 5-0 at Old Trafford in the 95/96 season(also under Keegan). This was a team determined to advertise the beginning of the 'Keegan revolution'-and what better way to advertise it than give the Champions a hell of a day in their own backyard. Personally I do not think that this was a one-off. This team will go on to give their opponents a hell of a game throughout this season. But now to United, what the heck happened to Carlos Tevez? For the whole week, it seemed as though it was Wayne going to be missing in the starting line-up but suddenly the Argentine is not even among the 7 subs. After appearing in all our pre-season games so far, he goes missing when we needed him much more(maybe I missed sth here- I don't know). But the Campbell-Rooney partnership had more problems than one today. Infact I would say the Tevez-Campbell one in pre-season was better than what we saw today. Credit to the younger lad because he nearly did open the scoring with his first real chance and he is still learning. Rooney was not at his usual best and hence we were a little slack in the final third. Our weaknesses on the day were made more prominent by our opponents' belief that they could have a go themselves-hence pouring in numbers to attack us on the counter. Or we could look at it the other way....while we were lucky not to get serious injuries last season to our 'men-of -the moment'(well we had but they were quite spread or spaced), it seems that this time round, we might not have the gods on our side. As if the injuries, suspensions and "disappearances" are not enough to contend with, Michael Carrick gets an ankle injury with hardly 10 minutes played...and wouldn't you just know it Ryan Giggs(who was one of our better players, pulls his hamstring and he has to leave the pitch too...and who can bet against news coming out sooner or later that Vidic picked up an injury(though he managed to see out the 90). It certainly is not going well for United at the moment so I can take the point just as I accepted it at the start of the last campaign. Truth is, with so many things going against us(including Vidic hitting the bar late on), we could have been beaten. Martins had free headers on three different occasions...we were lucky he only scored from one of them! Again we fall behind our rivals as soon as the season starts and again we have to do things the hard way...it's what makes being a United fan frustratingly enjoyable!
