Beaten Manchester United see red

YOU wait an age for one shocking disintegration of poise and invulnerability and suddenly two come along at once. Eight days ago Manchester United were skipping through the forest with seemingly nothing to stop them popping trophies in their basket.
Now they are as edgy as Little Red Riding Hoods who have just seen the Big Bad Wolf. Sir Alex Ferguson scoffed that he’d need to “read more Freud” in order to fathom Rafael Benitez, but if his nemesis can fashion a win over Aston Villa this afternoon, the joke will be on Ferguson. Liverpool would move to within a point of United with a chance, thanks to the fixture list, to regain leadership of the Premier League before United play again. It is Ferguson and his players who seem in need of psychoanalysis, if only to understand what inner collapse has caused such a sudden loss of authority.
Ferguson did his best to preserve any remaining veneer of calm as the teams left the pitch. He ordered Carlos Tevez, then Edwin Van der Sar to stop harranguing Phil Dowd, the referee, but nobody was fooled.
Apoplexy overcame Ferguson in his post-match interview. After complaining about the sending-offs of both Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes (questioning the latter, for blatant handball on the goalline seemed even more one-eyed than claiming United were “the better team” in their 4-1 defeat by Liverpool last week) exasperation caused Ferguson to tail off. “Ach . . . I mean . . . oh,” he said, “what can you say about that?”Fulham were magnificent, feisty, resolute, intelligent, controlled by United’s old bugbear Danny Murphy in the first period and kept intact by Mark Schwarzer’s heroic goalkeeping in the second. They were rocking only briefly, when United shelled Schwarzer’s goal for 10 minutes either side of the hour mark but that was it.
Ferguson’s assertion following the Liverpool defeat that “we will respond” was not borne out and for once the manager is grateful for an international break. He should have been thanking Dowd.
Cristiano Ronaldo could easily have earned the same penalty as Rooney and Scholes, who will miss United’s next fixture, versus Aston Villa, for a foot-off-the-ground lunge on Murphy for which he was yellow carded but might have seen red, and a prissy show of dissent minutes later, for which the referee merely warned him.
Dowd was more punitive towards Rooney. With a minute left the forward hurled the ball away when Dowd ordered a free kick to be retaken. He had already been cautioned for a cynical shirt-pull on Olivier Dacourt and was ordered to leave the field after being booked again. On his way off, Rooney landed a meaty punch upon the corner flag but it was United who had received the knockout blow.
Moments earlier Zoltan Gera had settled matters by scoring with a bicycle kick, teeing himself up cleverly after interplay with Andy Johnson.
Fulham’s early lead arrived when Brede Hangeland flicked on at a corner, Van der Sar saved Bobby Zamora’s header and Scholes palmed the ball away when Zamora followed up with another headed effort. Murphy stroked the penalty past Van der Sar and Ferguson’s gamble of recalling Scholes at Michael Carrick’s expense had failed. Dimitar Berbatov and Ronaldo, chosen as the front-line ahead of Rooney and Carlos Tevez, were indolent and indulgent respectively. Rooney, on at striker after replacing Berbatov at half-time, was the inspiration behind United’s comeback and it stalled the moment Ferguson brought on Tevez and moved Rooney to the right.
Fulham should have added to their first goal earlier but Clint Dempsey and Zamora missed chances and there were too many long-range shots.
Giggs released Ronaldo with a gorgeous pass and Schwarzer saved with his body when Park Ji-Sung attempted to convert the cross. Rooney went for goal with the rebound and Schwarzer saved again.
When Murphy made it 1-0 the cameras panned to the bench and you could see the gum turning round in Ferguson’s mouth at the speed of clothes in a spin cycle. At 2-0 he leaned back open mouthed. The chewing, and United’s world, had stopped.
FULHAM: Schwarzer 9, Pantsil 7, Hughes 7, Hangeland 8, Konchesky 7, Dempsey 7 (Gera 81min), Murphy 9 (Dacourt 67min), Etuhu 7, Davies 7, Johnson 6, Zamora 6 (Kamara 77min)
MAN UTD: Van der Sar 8, O’Shea 5 (Tevez 70min), Evans 5, Ferdinand 6, Evra 5, Ronaldo 5, Fletcher 5, Scholes 3, Park 5, Giggs 6, Berbatov 6 (Rooney ht, 5)
Star man: Danny Murphy (Fulham)
Yellow cards: Fulham: Pantsil, Dempsey Man Utd: Evans, Evra, Ronaldo, Rooney
Red cards: Man Utd: Scholes, Rooney
Referee: P Dowd
Attendance: 25,652
Source:the times