Bad Behaviour

A good win in the Carling Cup soured by the injury to Possebon.  Thankfully Possebon hasn't broken his leg (or, more accurately, Pogatetz hasn't broken Possebon's leg).  Sir Alex on the tackle:

"For the kid to be making his first start for us, and then to get an
injury like that, is pretty horrendous. It really was a terrible
tackle. I've seen one replay of it and I don't want to see it again.

"The
thing about challenges like that is the offender always seems to claim
he is innocent. Pogatetz should have walked straight off. When you see
it, dearie me, it's horrendous. For 10 minutes afterwards, I think
everyone was numb about it."

Anyway, to the game.  It was an easy enough game, we looked by far the better team and it was one of those games where it was perhaps too easy, allowing Boro back into it.  The Guardian report suggests that the sending off was the turning point, but really we were in control for the whole game and Boro scored one lucky goal, so The Guardian's assertion that "Pogatetz's sending-off drastically changed the complexion of the game", is slightly wide of the mark.

Most bizarre description of the day must go to The Telegraph who describe Gigg's goal thus: "Giggs seized on a long punt upfield and
curled his shot beautifully into the Stretford End net."  Yeah, it was a nice finish, but the long punt upfield was straight to Boro's Riggot who layed the ball nicely into Giggs's path.

The Times report on the match concludes with Sir Alex's words on Ronaldo, which are reported widely:

“Just as Italians playing abroad all dream of playing one day for Juventus
or the Milan clubs, so southern Europeans want at some point to play for
Real Madrid or Barcelona,” Ferguson said. “So I understood what was going on
in Cristiano’s mind when he declared that he wanted to join Real, but once
we had talked, he accepted it was a move for the future. I pointed out how
much better it would be to leave like Eric Cantona, with the fans loving and
appreciating him.”