THE INDEPENDENT
They may purport to be a club bound by togetherness off the field but on it Manchester United remain a disjointed unit, whose hopes of entering the Champions' League without the inconvenience of a qualifying round are fading.
Never able to muster more than the occasional hint that they might score, United were beaten by Jonathan Stead's goal five minutes from time. It was the 21-year-old's sixth in 11 games since stepping up three divisions from Huddersfield. The striker ensured Blackburn stay in the Premier League, their season rescued by a run of four straight wins.
For United, beaten three times in the last four games, the gap between themselves and Chelsea is now a forbidding four points, with Claudio Ranieri's side due at Old Trafford next Saturday. Nine defeats makes this season equal with United's worst in the Premiership and manager Sir Alex Ferguson must now address the possibility of finishing outside the top two for only the second time.
In United's mitigation, they were missing both their first-choice strikers, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Louis Saha, through injury. After Friday's unprecedented appearance by the former to denounce rumours he was leaving Old Trafford, anyone hoping to see the Dutchman on the field would have been disappointed as he remained sidelined by a thigh injury.
Saha was nursing an Achilles injury picked up in last weekend's home defeat by Liverpool while Cristiano Ronaldo had been hurt playing a friendly for Portugal. A hamstring strain ruled out Roy Keane and Paul Scholes was absent through suspension. What was left was a makeshift line-up in which Ryan Giggs and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer formed a front two with Kleberson tucked in behind them. Nicky Butt, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Phil Neville lined up in midfield but, despite a generous share of possession, there was little evidence of creative harmony.
THE SUNDAY TIMES
No wonder Sir Alex Ferguson was so keen to promote a united front at Old Trafford. Further evidence, if ever it was needed, that his faltering side can’t do without Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy was supplied in bucketloads by a resurgent Blackburn team who now know they can look forward to Premiership football next season and a brighter future, thanks to the goals of Jonathan Stead.
None of Ferguson’s signings of last summer have measured up, which means Keane and Van Nistelrooy remain treasured assets.
Neither was fit to play yesterday and subsequently United had little drive or cutting edge as they stumbled to their ninth League defeat of the campaign, equalling their worst ever tally in a Premiership season. Further injury problems didn’t help — Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo joining Keane, Van Nistelrooy and the suspended Paul Scholes on the absent list.
United’s spirit of togetherness may now be put to the test early next season with a potentially awkward trip in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League waiting, as even second place looks beyond a side that have only once previously finished outside the Premiership’s top two.
THE TORYGRAPH
United's demeanour suggested that the priority was to avoid injuries ahead of their FA Cup final date with Millwall. That said, with several visiting second stringers on view, a little more urgency might have been expected from Sir Alex Ferguson's side.
Injury deprived Ferguson of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Roy Keane - who, contrary to rumour, have apparently not fallen out with their manager and will not be imminently departing Old Trafford after all - but their absence provided him with an excuse for experimentation, namely a 4-3-1-2 formation featuring Kleberson behind Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ryan Giggs.
Sadly, the ensuing football was anything but avant-garde, Blackburn's Garry Flitcroft spurning the best chance of the first period. With Michael Gray's deflected cross deceiving United's defence, he was afforded ample space to pick his shooting spot but, instead, fired wide.
Andrew Cole, late of United, subsequently had a goal disallowed but it was clearly offside which, on a strangely low tempo afternoon featuring too many off-key performances, seemed somehow appropriate. At least Stead maintained his impressive form, the striker who began this season at Third Division Huddersfield constantly hassling Wes Brown.
In between, Phil Neville - whose private duel with Flitcroft proved one of the few sub-plots imbued with a little edge - was booked for shirt tugging but, that apart, proceedings continued to be distinguished by an ultra civilised approach.
Yet everything changed when Paul Gallagher replaced Cole and, used his first touch to deliver the ball to Stead from the inside left channel. Meeting it right-footed on the edge of the six-yard box, the young striker lashed a rising shot high into Howard's net, ensuring that the visiting President's trip was worth it after all.
THE OBSERVER
Manchester United fans, savouring an end-of-season excursion into deepest Lancashire, decreed the occasion a 1970s retro day. Unfortunately for them, United's players took the theme to heart. Nobody is suggesting yet that this is a team destined for the sort of trauma undergone by their predecessors in the first half of that decade, as Charlton, Law and Best were torn painfully from the club, but - despite protestations to the contrary from within - all is clearly not well at Old Trafford.
They have suffered nine defeats this season - six by 1-0 scorelines - and this one came courtesy of Jon Stead, the exciting new talent who has been largely responsible for Blackburn's rousing end to the season and four consecutive victories.
What a contrast the enthusiastic 21-year-old offered to United's players, who were going through the motions, seemingly indifferent to the claims from within the club that second place in the Premiership is still a goal worth attaining. In fact, second place now looks a wildly optimistic prediction for United. Even with Chelsea visiting Old Trafford on Saturday, Sir Alex Ferguson was quick to throw in the towel last night and, for only the second time, accept a finish outside the Premiership's top two places.