Nine-man United fall at Fulham
Wayne Rooney saw red for United
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Saturday, 21, Mar 2009 09:35
Manchester United had two players sent-off as they suffered a debilitating 2-0 defeat at the hands of Fulham at Craven Cottage.
The champions first had Paul Scholes sent-off for keeping out a Bobby Zamora header with his hands and Danny Murphy slotted home the resulting penalty.
United surged towards the Fulham goal for much of the second-half, but conceding again on the counter-attack as Zoltan Gera scored for Fulham. Wayne Rooney was also sent-off for United late on for a second bookable offence.
Fulham made a solid start and Zamora had an early long-range effort on goal which went just wide of Edwin van der Sar's post.
The game turned in the favour of the Cottagers after 19 minutes. United failed to clear a corner and Zamora had a header saved by van der sar, but the Fulham striker got on the end of the rebound and saw another header kept out – but this time it was by the hand of Scholes.
A penalty was awarded to Fulham and the referee had no option but to show a red card to Scholes. Former Liverpool favourite Murphy, who scored the winner three times against United during his time at Anfield, slotted home the penalty to give Fulham the lead.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson insisted his team would bounce back from the mauling at the hands of Liverpool last week, but Fulham looked like they could embarrass United again.
Zamora saw his shot saved by van der Sar and Andrew Johnson was unable to control the rebound, but the ball fell to Clint Dempsey who could only fire the ball over the bar. Zamora then saw a vicious 25 yard effort bounce of the body of van der Sar.
Fulham were absolutely sensational in the first-half and saw further shots from Zamora and Simon Davies saved by van der Sar.
United looked shell-shocked in the opening half, but after no doubt a few harsh words from Ferguson, they came out firing in the second-half and had Rooney, who replaced Dimitar Berbatov, to help their cause.
A below-par Cristiano Ronaldo was barley in the game for United, but almost got on the scoresheet when he saw his header go wide of goal.
The Premier League leaders laid siege on the Fulham goal and only the brilliance of Mark Schwarzer denied them. The big Aussie goalkeeper pulled off two great saves from close-range shots from Rooney and Ji-Sung Park.
Schwarzer then made another fine save from a 25 yard strike from Ronaldo and Rooney saw his follow-up effort blocked.
After all the pressure Fulham withstood, they got the ultimate reward as they broke to score a crucial second goal. Johnson passed the ball into Gera and he flicked the ball up before acrobatically finishing past van der Sar.
United's miserable afternoon was complete when Rooney was sent-off after getting a second yellow card for throwing the ball away.