After Pompey recorded their third home win over champions elect Manchester United, the excuses come out from the Reds camp.Sir Alex Ferguson, whilst magnanimous in defeat, still had to make excuses for United’s defeat at the hands of Portsmouth today.
Their defeat has now blown the title race wide open as Chelsea had earlier in the day gained a slim 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur. This means the match at Stamford Bridge in a couple of weeks time has more meaning than it did before United’s sorry result at Fratton Park.
This defeat though was as usual met with excuses from United and also a really pathetic and woeful response from the Media who are surely all licking clean the boots of each Manchester United player whilst this article is being written. Sir Alex complained that the midweek activities of his side in Roma did not help their performance today; but a club with so many talented players in their reserves as well as on the bench should be able to cope with such difficulties.
Sir Alex may feel he has reason to make excuses, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that Pompey had 50% of their defence missing today with Sol Campbell and Glen Johnson both missing due to injuries. Portsmouth do not have the same luxury that Sir Alex enjoys as their squad is much smaller and does not have anywhere near the same strength in depth.
As for the Media – they are already saying that United went to Fratton understrength with Giggs and Solskjaer on the bench and the entire squad had flown direct to the South Coast from Roma so had not even had time to rest. What both United and the Media fail to appreciate is that on the day, Pompey deserved their hard battled win, they worked hard, fought for the ball and gave 110%. A similar example of this was back in 2003/04 season when Pompey trounced Leeds United 6-1, the talk then was all about Peter Reid and how long he would remain as manager at Leeds – was there any credit given to Pompey by the Media? Not a chance!
If United find that the Champions League is too much for them then they and the media ought to quit the tournament and concentrate on the domestic scene. What is always so typical with United is that as they all made their way to their West Country, Surrey and Home Counties homes (let’s face it, none of them come from Manchester!!), they can never accept defeat gracefully – something that Chelsea at least can manage.
On a final note, well done to the players at Portsmouth, now prove you are worth it by following this up with another result at Watford on Monday – don’t give the Media an excuse to stick the knife in again, Gary Lineaker and Mark Lawrenson are only too eager to do this and cannot give credit to Pompey because they would choke on it!
Play Up Pompey!!!
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