Posts Tagged ‘Old Trafford’
Manchester United 1 – 6 Manchester City…WTF?
The worst defeat for Manchester United since the founding of the English Premier League in 1992. Listless, mediocre defending, few shots taken at goal much less into the goal – while Manchester City played a professional, workmanlike match throughout.
There will be plenty of professional coverage of the match by those writers paid to do so. I recommend the GUARDIAN UNLIMITED for that task. The result was just so stunning I had to make mention, had to record this at my personal blog.
Sir Alex’ strategy can’t sufficiently motivate a team that doesn’t reach its own standard. Roberto Mancini can take credit for bringing together an international aggregation into a real team.
Mario Balotelli [center] celebrates with teammates after scoring the first goal of the match
Daylife/Reuters Picture used by permission
Shopkeeper free of charges for killing one of four armed gangsters
Cecil Coley – my hero
A shopkeeper who stabbed a 30-year-old intruder to death has been told he will not be charged with any offence.
Cecil Coley stabbed Gary Mullings, 30 – who was attempting to rob his flower shop in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester – in July. The 72-year-old was arrested on suspicion of murder after Mullings was pronounced dead in hospital…
Nathan Walters, 26, of Salford, Joseph Mullings, 25, of Liverpool and 19-year-old Kyle Mullings, of no fixed address, have been charged with robbery and will appear at Manchester crown court in October.
Coley, who was injured during the incident, was questioned by detectives after his release from hospital. He had been playing cards with a 60-year-old friend, who was also injured, at the time of the incident.
Police said a number of men had tried to rob the shop and that a gun had been found at the scene…
Nazir Afzal, the chief crown prosecutor for the north-west area, said he was satisfied that Coley was “acting in reasonable self-defence at the time”.
He said he had considered all the evidence gathered by Greater Manchester police and decided Coley should not be prosecuted for any offence over the death of Gary Mullings.
“It is difficult to envisage a more frightening set of circumstances than these,” he said. “Four men, armed with guns and a knife, forced their way into the shop as Mr Coley was locking up.
“Mr Coley received a number of injuries, including a serious facial injury, and his friend was knocked unconscious. At some point in the incident, one of the guns, a blank firing pistol, was fired.”
The sentence for armed robbery, for committing a crime of violence, life-threatening to the victim – should be life. Warehouse the bastards until and unless a jury of warders decides that any sort of rehabilitation has taken place.
Why turn unrepentant scum back into the streets because some particular metric has been reached? Penal systems can be managed to reduce recidivism while maintaining the safety of a law abiding populace at the same time.
Yes – we do a lousy job at that here in the United States and I doubt the UK is much better. That still doesn’t justify diminishing public safety because all the other institutions failed similarly.
Manchester United get more stoppage time when they’re losing
Man U probably won’t need the extra time against Wolves, today. But, everyone’s suspicions appear to be confirmed by this bit of mathematics. Football referees are afraid of the Red Devils and Sir Alex.
Sir Alex Ferguson likes to boast that his Manchester United team score more late goals than any other side in the world. Others argue that they get a bit of extra help from referees. It has now emerged that the Premier League champions do, as suspected, benefit from an imbalance in the amount of stoppage time that is added to their matches.
After the controversy over Michael Owen’s winning goal in Sunday’s Manchester derby, the Guardian has looked at all of United’s league matches at Old Trafford since the start of the 2006-07 season and discovered that, on average, there has been over a minute extra added by referees when United do not have the lead after 90 minutes, compared to when they are in front…
When Owen made it 4-3 on Sunday the game was five minutes and 26 seconds into stoppage time. In total, the referee, Martin Atkinson, allowed almost seven minutes, even though the fourth official had signalled a minimum of four. Mark Hughes, the City manager, spoke of feeling “robbed”. His sense of grievance will not be helped if he analyses the last three seasons.
In 2006-07, for example, United were winning 15 times on entering stoppage time and referees added an average 194.53sec. In the four games when United were not winning there was an average of 217.25sec. The following year the disparity was greater, Opta’s figures showing an average 178.29sec added when United were winning and 254.5sec when they were not. Last season it was 187.71sec compared to 258.6sec.
The pattern has continued in the first three games of the season. In the two games United have led they have played an average 304sec of injury time. On Sunday, Atkinson allowed the game to go on for 415sec.
We’re not exactly unfamiliar with the habit here in the colonies. The American League treats the Yankees much the same. When the Dallas Cowboys actually were a winning team – they were America’s Team. I lived outside Boston when the Celtics could do no wrong as long as they were playing on parquet.
But – step back for a second – and look at what’s best for the sport. Even-handedness should always be the goal. Then, everyone wins. Or at least has the same chance.
Oh – and good luck, today, Mick.
