At the start of play, it was a must-win for us to stay in the running while a win for Utd would all but secure them back-to-back titles. Nice to see Hargreaves, Ronaldo and Tevez on the bench then – Fergie had certainly taken our recent standard of play into consideration when picking today’s team.

Surprisingly it was Utd with the nervier start with Brown heading back to a badly placed Van Der Sar. Essien picks up the clearance and volleys it over, but the early signs looked good with us much the brighter side. Vidic, who seems to have had more than his fair share of sicknotes lately, retired again inside the first 15, having inadvertently headbutted Drogba’s knee. The enforced substitution sees Hargreaves brought in at right-back and Brown shuffle in a bit to keep Ferdinand company. Midway through the first half sees Joe Cole rattle the frame, as we continue to dominate the first half and that pressure pays off a minute into time added on as Ballack heads a Drogba pass past Van Der Sar. Momentary excitement sees him strip off his shirt and receive a yellow for his unchecked emotion. So, we go into the break a goal up and as rare as it is this season – we actually looked good for it.

Ten minutes into the second half though and the expected cock-up was inevitable really. Oddly enough coming from Carvalho, one of the most experienced centre-backs in the Premier League, who celebrates his 100^th game by gifting Rooney the ball, leaving the defence wide open for Rooney to finish easily. Having finally managed to break his duck against Chelsea - and possibly something else judging by the way he left the field cluching his nether regions, Rooney is forced off, to be replaced by Ronaldo. Three-quarters gone sees tempers fraying a little with JT moving players out of Wiley’s face only for Utd to go in for the full onslaught. Drogba and Ballack then bizarrely do verbal battle over a free-kick and having got his own way, Drogba still insists on striding over to berate Steve Clarke, waving an angry finger in the Scots face. 15 mins to go and Mikel gets his obligatory booking, how reassuring that some things never change. Ah, but they do, because with 6 minutes remaining, having just decided Brown hadn’t put laces in the ball, the linesman adjudges Michael Carrick to have handled in the area as United concede their first penalty of the season, harsh timing indeed. The new and improved Ballack stepped forward, slotting the ball home and leaving the home crowd far too long left to bite their nails with the ref adding an agonising 5 minutes. And a nerve-wracking 5 minutes it proved to be with both Ashley Cole and the barely warmed up Shevchenko both clearing off the line. And just as we have so many times this season, we managed to hang on with our home record intact – albeit more deservedly so on this occasion.

I’m not sure there’s anyone more surprised at this result than me, particularly taking the quality of our football this season into account and I’m certainly not going to get carried away with the result, united still effectively have a point over us with their greater goal difference and they remain in the driving seat. But considering the manner in which the game was played, I will get carried away with a bit of praise today – a rarity indeed – because the boys done us and themselves proud and it’s been well overdue.

Filed under: Match report