United 2-0 Doncaster: Reserves’ Day Out

The biggest draw of this game was the debut of Anderson. Although, the team he played in was a chock full of reserves. What else could you call it, when the most experienced players in that side were Fletcher and Silvestre. I happened to catch most of the match before my stream conked out at the last 10 minutes.

Anyhow, here are my notes on the game.

First things first. The team played in a black away kit. Here’s a shot of Anderson in action in the black kit.

• Anderson played in the first half. It was an impressive debut from the lad. He seemed to want the ball and ran around the pitch tirelessly. The good part about his play was that he restricted his moments with the ball to one-two touches before passing it on. This was because of the willingness of the Doncaster players to literally fall on Anderson the moment he received the ball. That said, however, he did seem indecisive at times, not sure whether to keep the ball or pass it. He made two to three passes that were sublime, but his talent still needs nurturing.
• Darron Gibson was quite good in midfield. He scored a scorching 25 yarder that got our first goal in the 70th minute, but he also had our only real chance – in an otherwise dull first half – which hit the crossbar.
• Frazier Campbell, who has been highly rated by many close observers of the United youth setup failed to impress. He was in fact quite disappointing. More often than not he was found wanting in the box with the goal at his mercy. For all his pace, he lacks composure in front of goal. Although he is pretty young.
• Lee Martin was mostly disappointing. And his hairstyle was worse.
• I couldn’t see too much of the second half, and hence missed Sean Evans’ cracker but I heard from others that he did well overall.
• Tomasz Kuszczak was immense. The last ditch parrying that he did today was a good work out for him.
• In the first half, the presence of Pique and Evans ensured we didn’t have too much trouble with our defending, which – needless to say – was solid.
• Dong Fangzhou impressed in patches when he came on in the second half. He made some deft touches. But really, there wasn’t much from him to talk about. Frankly, I think he’s shite. But after these years, he needs to be given his fair chance.

And I guess that should wrap the post game notes. Meanwhile I managed to also catch the MUTV interview with Fergie where he said that Tevez will most likely play on Wednesday. On that day we are playing two games: one in Ireland against Glentoran and the other in Scotland against Dunfermline. So there would be two different United squads sent to the two venues, which will be interesting.