Man United v Tottenham 05/01/97

Manchester United             (0) 2 Tottenham              (0) 0 FT

The kids in men's clothing were finally, emphatically torn asunder at Old Trafford by the latest in the collection of masterpieces David Beckham has lavished on this season.

There were eight minutes left of this tie between Manchester United and Tottenham's patchwork quilt of reserves when all the effort, all the bravery, all the resolution was drained from the whites.

They were a goal down, but they had not given up the ghost. Then Colin Calderwood - the Scot who epitomised the belligerence Tottenham had required for such an unequal task - upended Ryan Giggs in full flow 30 yards from goal.

Beckham placed the ball down. Four steps back, four on the run and his shot spun over the wall and cut a parting as sharp as the one on his crown.

Tottenham goalkeeper Ian Walker will know from their England training sessions how Beckham can bend the ball but even he was astonished by the accuracy and spin.

This was always going to be a difficult assignment but Tottenham were lacking Teddy Sheringham, Darren Anderton, Chris Armstrong and Steffen Iversen and preferred to leave out Clive Wilson and Ruel Fox.

Chairman Alan Sugar was at his holiday home in Florida watching the game via a satellite link. It is possible he winced at the determination of Roy Keane to keep United toiling when they were struggling initially to come to terms with Tottenham's application and understanding.

Gerry Francis was forced to thrust 19-year-olds Rory Allen and Neale Fenn into his forward line, asking them to run for their lives, to try to unsettle and unnerve. For some time their effervescence, David Howells' control and the thrusts of Andy Sinton and Allan Nielsen quietened Old Trafford.

Keane was running around like a man possessed, screaming fire and brimstone at those he did not think were living up to his standards. A few celebrated people got mouthfuls of Irish ire but he sparked a response.

In the 26th minute his lacerating pass released Beckham for a first-time cross into a penalty area deserted but for Giggs. The Welshman had time to pick his spot but drilled his header where Walker could get a hand to it.

A moment or two later Keane went right through Nielsen - a foul overlooked by the referee - and did the same again a yard away, cutting Justin Edinburgh in two. Referee Lodge had then to begin his booking spree.

Andy Cole - leading United's line for the first time this season in place of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - and Calderwood indulged in a rolling maul and were cautioned. No disputing that, but Tottenham were incensed when Cole's lunging attempt to win possession from Nielsen in the 58th minute went unnoticed in what was to become the build-up for the breakthrough.

The ball found its way through to Beckham; Cole had made up ground and laid the ball neatly square for Paul Scholes to hold off Calderwood and score, tumbling away to his left.

When United were still celebrating Fenn crossed from the right and Allen could have equalised but the ball flew off his shin.

There is promise for the future of Tottenham but the patience of everyone at White Hart Lane is going to be tested in the difficult weeks ahead. There is still Europe to play for.

United's horizons are so much wider, their prospects so much brighter. And they have Beckham, a shining light in football's firmament. With him and Keane, they can take on the world.

Subject: United v Spurs Cup Match Report Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997 12:02:28 +0000

Alan Dobson united@power1.powernet.co.uk

Reply-To: Eric@united.powernet.co.uk
To: Multiple recipients of list MUFC
MUFC@IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU

After reading this morning`s digest I noticed most people had seen the game live on tv but for the benefit of those who didn`t here`s a short and sweet report.

I had a seat in the very back row of the Stretford End right below one of the exec boxes. The 7-8,000 Spurs fans were in good voice despite the fact they were fielding a seriously under-strength side. For much of the fist half their fans outsang us and their player`s played out of their skins. Scholes had an absolutely diabolical first half and looked totally lost in midfield. The rest of the team also looked below par but still managed to put Beckham through down the right wing early on for him to send over a pin-point accurate cross to the advancing Giggs who somehow managed to header the ball directly at Ian Walker. Like recent games everyone around the ground groaned loudly whilst rubbing their eyes in disbelief. I was beginning to wonder if it was going to be our day as Tottenham seemed to grow stronger as the first half went on and we were looking increasingly bad. Keane looked like he was trying single-handedly to win us the game realising the players around him weren`t performing. Even Eric looked ordinary for much of the first half. The game wasn`t helped with yet another dodgy referee. How these twats get paid for what they do is beyond me. I saw numerous bad decisions where the ball had clearly gone out of play after touching a Spurs player last yet the ref gave Spurs the throw-in or goal kick. It must be a pre-condition nowadays that if you want to be a referee you have to be totally blind. You`d expect the referee`s assistant to help the referee out but they all seem to be suffering from the same visibilty problems.

The Spurs fans outsung us continually in the first half and as expected came up with the totally original and ever-so-witty "Do you come from Manchester" chant. Wow, I had a really weird feeling of deja vue. It`s been almost a week since hearing that chant. Amazing! I`ll forget the fact that when last going down to White Hart Lane to see United I saw hundreds of Spurs fans getting trains North from Euston to various places in the home counties! All together now..."Do you come from North London...". Sad bastards. Still, if it makes the nob-ends laugh then why spoil their day out? The reds in J stand and L stand which flanked the Spurs end hit back with "Come to see United....you`ve only come to see United" which pissed the sad tossers off. Heheheh!! That chant seems to be the one that really hits a nerve at all games. I wonder why! Maybe cos it`s true! Maybe! The first half ended nil nil and me commenting to my mate that maybe Scholes should be substituted as he was so ineffective in midfield. Only trouble was.......there was only one real replacement....McClair! Yes, that young spring-chicken of a man! Only joking of course!

Everyone I spoke to at half time agreed on the fact that we were poor and were struggling. Yet we were all resigned to praying for divine inspiration from that man from france on whom we`ve relied so often!

The second half started and we noticed a substitution had been made. McClair had come on to replace the injured (I presume) Dennis Irwin. Oh no I thought! Here we go again!!!! Fergie decided to change things around and gave us 3 at the back with Gary Neville, Ronnie Johnsend and David May. With 5 in midfield (including McClair). What a tactical calamity if I do say so myself. As someone else mentioned on here it just left us open down the left for Spurs to start finding space and giving us real problems. Sometimes I wonder if Fergie isn`t very shrewd on tactics and formations. Still, he`s the manager...not me! Cole for most of the game looked back to his dithering worst....until a good one-two between him and Scholes saw Scholes slam the ball past Ian Walker. A massive cheer more out of relief than joy swept around the ground. The guy next to me said "Lucky they didn`t take Scholes off at half time!" in reference to me saying he should have been subbed. Taking it like a man I said "That`s why I`m not the manager" and laughed my head off! Dont you just hate it when that happens?

Almost immediately after that another dangerous roun down the right by Spurs saw a good low cross reach it`s desired target only for the Spurs player to fluff the shot and send it yards wide! Another lucky escape. From that point on we seemed to get our confidence back and moved up a gear. Spurs had to attack now and were leaving more space for us. We created another good 3 or 4 chances but squandered them all. Cole was put through with just the goalie to beat but somehow managed to run towards the corner flag, let himself get caught by a defender then run into a blind alley. Now why didn`t he just shoot when he was 10 yards out? I know he`s not been back long but I`m afraid it looks like he`s back to his worst. I think his main problem is that he thinks too much instead of using his instincts. I hope he snaps out of it but for now I can`t see a single reason why he should start a game ahead of Solksjaer! Solksjaer eventually came on to replace Cole as chants of "Ole Ole Ole Ole Oleeeeee...." rang out with the crowd seemingly getting frustrated with Andy Cole.

Once Solksjaer came on the difference between him and Andy was so easy. Ole`s ball control and movement is so much better. He can dribble his way out of trouble and when he loses the ball he harrasses the player trying to get the ball back. Whereas Andy just plods back to the halfway line. The game was over as a contest when we were given a free kick about 5 yards outside the penalty area. Beckham stepped up then curled the ball over and around the Spurs wall and into the top left corner leaving Ian Walker with no chance whatsoever. Cue mass hysteria as 48,000 reds realised with just 8 minutes left the game was over. This was time for the reds to give the once lairy and mouthy Cockneys a taste of their own medicine. Chants of "You`re going out, you`re going out, you`re going....Tottenham`s going out..." to the tune of the "Three Lions" and "Lets all laugh at Tottenham, lets all laugh at Tottenham...ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha haaa...".

I don`t know if that`s what started it but I looked up towards the section where the United fans were seperated from the Spurs fans and noticed it was begining to look dodgy. Spurs fans were pushing past the line of stewards to get at United fans while the United fans were trying to get at the Spurs fans. I saw at least one steward trading punches with a Spurs fan. Once the rest of the stadium realised what was going on one deafening chant of "United, United, United" roared out followed by "We`re on the march with Fergie`s army, we`re all going to Wember-lee, and we`ll really shake them up when we win the FA Cup cos United are the greatest football team" at which point everyone seemed to be on their feet and bouncing up and down. After a few more chances squandered by United the referee blew his whistle and the fans left the ground with a few singing the United war-cry of "Karma karma karma karma karma karma United Road....United Road...United Road...." which led me to belive their was likely to be more trouble outside the ground as unhappy Spurs fans and jubilant United fans mingled. I never went that way as I made my way to the coach park so don`t know if anything actually happened but I wouldn`t be suprised if it did.

All in all it was a good result despite a pretty below par performance but we`re through to the next round with another home draw so we can`t complain! Bring on Wimbledon and our 4th FA Cup Final running!

Cheers! ****************************************************** * Alan Dobson - eric@united.powernet.co.uk * * * * "Matt Busby`s without doubt the greatest manager * * who ever lived. I`m not saying I THINK he`s the * * greatest manager, I`m saying he IS the greatest * * manager." Bill Shankly * * * ******************************************************

Report from Our Salford Lass : Man U Mailing List

I'm sure that everyone out there will be glad to know that yesterday, the powers-that-be at Old Trafford let me out of the second tier for the day! Presumably due my good behaviour over the last couple of weeks, I was allowed to join the lucky people in North Stand Lower for the FA Cup game (I should have been elsewhere in the stadium, but that's another story too long to go into here, suffice it to say that the ticket office made a bollocks of my application to move!). As we arrived, it was good to be in the stadium 'proper' again, close to the action (we were on the fourth row from the front)

and could see the sweat on Eric's legs and hear Roy swearing at the linesman! We spent the time before the game looking for Pete and Hal (unsuccessfully, unfortunately), waving to our friends in the second tier who hadn't been as lucky as us and watching the warm-up.

Once the game started, some of the enjoyment evaporated as we again played a scrappy, sloppy game for the first half. The Tottenham side (consisting of reserves, youngsters and kids dragged in off the street) threatened to outplay us and the refereeing was even worse than the Villa game. Yellow cards were merrily dished out for nothing and leg-breaking tackles ignored. The Tottenham fans who filled the East Stand outsung us for the whole half, and we deserved their chant of "You're supposed to be at home".

When half-time came, George Best came on the pitch to pick the draw ticket to the chant from the Tottenham fans of "You're pissed and you know you are". This upset most of the United fans of course, but seeing the match on TV later last night it was obvious that he probably was - it broke my heart to see him: needing a shave, a cut on his head that looked like the result of a fall and that silly smile on his face - Oh Georgie, what have you become? On a brighter note, there then followed a presentation to Steve Bruce of his FA Cup winner's medal - a nice gesture on the club's part and Steve got a great welcome from the United fans as usual.

The second half was better. An excellent cross from Cole to Scholes got us the first goal and then Becks put in his now obligatory wonder goal! At this rate, the goal of the season competition is just going to be a list of Beckham goals! What a bloody free kick, Ian Walker was rooted to the spot. Man of the matchwas Roy Keane - he was everywhere, tackling and passing and covering mistakes made by others. One particularly memorable moment was when he tackled one Tottenham player, leaving him prostrate on the pitch and then within a couple of seconds, down went another! Talk about a one-man war machine, you had a vision of 11 players scattered on their backs on the pitch as Roy disappeared off into the distance towards goal! I know he gets a bit carried away sometimes, but the man has such guts and class!!

May and Johnsen came close second for me in the man of the match race. They both had excellent games after a shaky start, Johnsen in particular is fitting in well now and at one point was up front dribbling the ball like a centre forward! Irwin was quiet, Gary Neville was reliable (as usual), Cole was obviously not at his fittest (this being his first start, after all) and seemed to be holding back at times, but had a good game, particularly in the first half. His cross to Scholes for the first goal was very unselfish, he could have had a shot, but the pass was the right thing to do. Scholes was quiet in the first half, but excellent in the second, especially in his link-ups with Cole. The only thing that spoilt the game was the signs of petulance from some of our players - even May got in on the act!

The last 20 minutes or so were the best for atmosphere (the words "we only sing when we're winning" come to mind!), enlivened by the start of some trouble up in the North corner of East Stand! I couldn't see much but it looked as if the Tottenham fans were trying to get past the Stewards to get at the United fans. I saw some objects being thrown back and forth, and the "suits" seemed to be enjoying themselves laying into everyone who moved! Eventually, the police moved in and the trouble was over. It was quite amusing at one point watching the stewards (who tend to be rather over-weight, elderly and not generally very fit) trying to scramble over seats to keep the warring factions apart! It probably wasn't as funny to be in the middle of it! The section we were in wasn't too bad for chanting etc. One guy kept us all amused - after being told off for swearing, he spent the rest of the game telling the referee he was a "naughty boy" and shouting "Oh dash!", everytime we lost the ball! My patience was stretched to the limit by the woman in the seat next to me, who spent the whole game trying to get Eric's photo and complained loudly everytime he set off towards goal with the ball because she was just getting her shot lined up!

It was a shame that I probably ruined the one shot she did get by jogging her arm just as she took it! (Accidentally, of course)

I had taped the game, so watched it on TV when we got home. It's amazing how different the game looks on TV - I often wonder whether I was actually at the same game! Great excitement in our household to discover that Ian and myself were on the tape! There we were, as the captain's tossed the coin before kick-off! So I can now say I have been on tele with Eric Cantona!! Also good to watch highlights of the other matches later and to see Shearer, for once, not get away with diving for a penalty! Not a great game, but a win and we're through to the next round.

Linda

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