So after a week where Samba lost 10 pounds due to swine flu the Rovers had to face the English Champions. Allardyce wasn’t heard complaining about our fight with the flu, but he subtly got the message across that if we were to lose at the weekend it couldn’t be his fault. He was very concerned about the state of his players for the Peterborough Carling cup tie bravely suggesting his players would carry on regardless.

Luckily this weekend no excuses were required as it was only two world class touches, first by Berbatov then by Rooney, that separated the two sides. Blackburn were kept off the ball by a Manchester side who dominated possession however unlike last week, Rovers were hard to break down and stopped most attacks from gaining momentum. Givet stood out for me as he put in some crucial tackles alongside Samba who showed little sign of his mid week illness.

 

 

The scoreline was slightly disappointing as the defence worked so hard, but Kalinic also had a legitimate goal disallowed because the linesman had a case of the “Old Trafforditis” which seems to make ordinary officials go at extraordinary lengths to please Sir Alex. Kalinic was a bright spark upfront and hopefully this is a sign of things to come from the young Croat, a goal at Old Trafford would have done wonders for his confidence of course, but hopefully he will continue to press for more first team action.

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