RIO FORGETS TO TURN UP (AGAIN)

Last updated : 26 October 2003 By Editor

THE TIMES : RIO GOES MISSING AGAIN

Absent from the dug-out was Sir Alex Ferguson, starting a two-game touchline ban, and without the ringmaster to direct things, there were clowns instead of lions wearing the United shirts.

Their shambolic nature was epitomised when Quinton Fortune came on after half-time but neither the player nor Ferguson’s deputies informed Mike Riley, the referee. Fortune earned a booking before even touching the ball.

Trawling for explanations, he said he was partly to blame for pitching both Nicky Butt and Eric Djemba-Djemba into midfield when neither had played much first-team football since August. With Phil Neville, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes rested, Ferguson’s second choices proved distinctly second rate.

But then, goalkeeper Tim Howard apart, United were deficient everywhere.

A 1-1 scoreline at half-time was a travesty. United’s equaliser came when Ryan Giggs played a delicious ball inside with the outside of his foot to spring Diego Forlan, who belted a low shot to the right of Edwin Van der Sar. United left to cheers at half-time when really they deserved boos. Ferguson was not fooled and hauled off Silvestre, but it could easily have been Ronaldo or, despite his goal, Forlan.

When Ferguson went midfielder-mad in the transfer market this summer, it was a wonder that he did not consider Malbranque. Indeed, it is a mystery how this impish little Frenchman has remained so long at Fulham without being stolen by a bigger club.

THE TELEGRAPH: WAKE UP CALL

Fulham had a dream start. Barely three minutes had elapsed when Malbranque worked the first of his many tricks.

It was United's first taste of his vision and control as he mesmerised the left side of their defence and pinged in a waist-high cross that Lee Clark tucked away neatly.

Old Trafford was stunned. Ferguson, banned from the touchline and sitting at the back of the directors' box, is no more used to such shocks than the 67,000 in the towering stands and another was on its way.

After 66 minutes Fulham score a second goal that again asked questions of United's defence. Luis Boa Morte tossed in a centre from the left, Saha won the header against Ferdinand and the ball dropped for the outstanding Malbranque to inflict the damage with a low shot.

Fulham never thought of hanging on. They went for more and the exit doors saw a few red die-hards passing disconsolately through as Inamoto hammered home the goal that took the points,. He ran onto Clark's pass, nipping between defenders.

THE INDEPENDENT: FULL STEED AHEAD FOR FULHAM

It is becoming fashionable to leave Old Trafford. David Beckham and Juan Sebastian Veron said goodbye in the summer, Paddy Harverson, their communi- cations director, is to join the Royal Family's public relations team, and yesterday Manchester United's home record went west too.

It is 13 months since United have been beaten in the Premiership at Old Trafford but if the scoreline provoked surprise elsewhere there were 67,727 souls in the Theatre of Dreams to testify this was no Fulham fluke. The Londoners were as good as United were bad and fully merited only their second win in 24 attempts at Old Trafford, scoring goals through Lee Clark, Steed Malbranque and Junichi Inamoto. By the end their supporters were chanting "we want four", and, although done tongue-in-cheek, another goal or two would not have flattered their team.

You could scarcely begrudge Fulham's lead and they reinforced it 12 minutes from time when United's defence, who had been dozing most of the afternoon, went to sleep completely. Malbranque's long pass found Inamoto and as Quinton Fortune tried desperately to catch him up, the Japanese midfielder shot first time past Howard.

For Fortune, it summed up his and his team's afternoon. United introduced the South African at the interval without informing the officials and he was booked as soon as the referee, Mike Riley, noticed. Maybe the Old Trafford employee who should have supervised Rio Ferdinand's drugs test is now in charge of substitutions.


THE OBSERVER: ALEX MADE TO PAY

It was hard to tell which set of supporters was more stunned by this result, the small but noisy band of Fulham fans who had seen their side win only once here, and that in the days of Johnny Haynes, or United's followers who were expecting a walkover.

Having previously failed to concede a goal at home this season, and without a Premiership home defeat in more than a year, United were firm favourites to win and move back to the top of the table.

But football, as they say, is a funny, if not bizarre, old game, and Fulham not only upset the odds but did it in style, thoroughly deserving this astonishing victory which has put them back on course for an unlikely place in Europe.

Apart from a brief spell early in the second half, United were always second best to the Fulham side that Chris Coleman is turning into a desirable mix of determined battlers and skilful attack-minded players.