United Stumble and Pompey are Revived

By Thomas O'Loughlin | 4th October 2009

United Stumble and Pompey are Revived | read this item

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darren bent goal v united Before today’s games my colleague Taylor Fisher predicted a Portsmouth victory in today’s game away to Wolves. Indeed he was right and the 1-0 victory puts new life in to Pompey’s season. Wolves have had a patchy start to the season and their opposition exploited their weaknesses and have given Paul Hart some relief from the turmoil surrounding the club.

Last weekend they were unlucky not to get anything off Everton after numerous wasted chances. After all the talk of them being doomed to relegation they now stand four points from safety and have some optimism in the coming weeks. Next week’s international break comes at a bad time, though, as Paul Hart’s players will be anxious for action again.

Wolves, on the other hand, look poised for a relegation struggle. They played well against Sunderland in the previous game but still got a heavy beating. Today they were at home and if they want to stay up, winning home games is a must. They have a lot of championship players who may struggle to play at this high level.

In the evening game Manchester United came up against Sunderland, who are playing well under Steve Bruce. United were awful on Wednesday night against Wolfsburg and they continued this form into the first half. Darren Bent gave the Black Cats an early lead and were comfortably on top in the rest of the half. United showed no attacking threat and Paul Scholes was not having one of his better games. Danny Welbeck did not offer anything of note and it was surprising Ryan Giggs was not even on the bench given his excellent form. United’s passing was lazy and lethargic and Alex Ferguson surely had harsh words to say at half time.

United came out and started the second half with much more urgency. Anderson replaced Scholes and it wasn’t long before Berbatov equalized with a superb volley. But United fell back into the comfort zone and poor defending and worse goalkeeping gave Sunderland the lead again.

Ben Foster has the ability but his mistakes in recent games are putting question marks over his future as a number one goalie at United. He went to catch a ball that he should have punched and got punished for the mistake. Van Der Sar’s imminent return will put Foster back on the sidelines and he hasn’t done an awful lot with his great opportunity to make a claim for a first team spot.

Fortune favored United at the end of the game as Anton Ferdinand put the ball into his own net. In Manchester United’s last home game it was Rio who made the mistake and today it was his brother, so Old Trafford is not a happy ground for the Ferdinands at the moment.

While the draw keeps United on top until tomorrow at least, time will tell whether dropping points at home will be costly in United’s pursuit of another Premier League crown. Poor defending is proving to be their downfall at present and improvements are needed if United are to match the success of last season.