THIS game was both a thrashing and a thriller. At least 80% of the action involved Manchester United making monkeys of the Tigers of Hull, the chasm between the sides seeming as wide as if the visitors were still in League Two. Sir Alex Ferguson was not exaggerating when he suggested it could have finished with the score-board reading 10-1. So how did it end with Cristiano Ronaldo back in his own penalty are, hacking clear, and the nerves of home fans in threads? “We got ourselves in an embarrassing situation,” said Ferguson. He spoke in his “football? bloody hell!” tone of voice.
United were like Monty Brewster in the film Brewster’s Millions, a man who tires of being super-rich and tries to give his fortune away. It was difficult when doing the player ratings for this match to know whether to give Dimitar Berbatov, Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney eights and nines out of ten, or twos and threes. The gilded trio conjured attacking football that was exquisite in conception, vivid in hue and yet their finishing was of the most artisan standard.
That even goes for Ronaldo, who despite getting his 98th and 99th goals wearing the United No 7 jersey squandered double the number of chances he scored. It certainly goes for Rooney, who became the symbol of United’s mounting annoyance as, with the opposition roaring back from 4-1 to 4-3, there was a sudden threat that their wastefulness would have serious consequences. Hull came back to beat Arsenal and won at Tottenham and Newcastle through their adventurousness and, despite this first away defeat of the season, Phil Brown’s team remain irrepressible. “When the score goes to 4-1 you tend to close your eyes but you’ve got to give the players a lot of credit,” Brown said. “The towel never goes in at this club.”
Spirit aside, the ingredients that made Hull’s comeback possible included an inspired substitution by Brown, whose introduction of Bernard Mendy suddenly stretched their opponents down the left flank, a prodigious performance from their goalkeeper, Boaz Myhill, and some defending by United which was suitably horrific given it was the day after Halloween. Ferguson also believed Mike Dean was a factor and had to be restrained by Gary Neville from confronting the official at full-time.
Ferguson felt Dean should have given Michael Turner, already booked, a second yellow card for felling Michael Carrick as United’s midfielder was about to go through on goal, and that Dean was wrong to give the penalty which allowed Geovanni to make it 4-3 when Rio Ferdinand blocked off Mendy with his arm. Ferguson seemed wrong about the Ferdinand incident, correct regarding the Carrick one.
Just as against Chelsea in midweek, Hull were blitzed by an early goal. Beautiful combination play by United saw Gary Neville chip forward to Ronaldo, Ronaldo find Berbatov with a volley using the back of his heel and Berbatov return the ball to the Portuguese with a volley of his own. Ronaldo swivelled on the pass and drilled a perfect shot past Myhill from 18 yards.
Berbatov was chief veterinarian as, for 69 minutes, the Tigers were declawed and muzzled. His causal genius was evident in a succession of moments, least of all when a gorgeously weighted pass allowed Carrick to advance, drive at Paul McShane and hit a lovely left-footer across Myhill and in off the far post.
Another sumptuous move preceded this. Berbatov had got the ball from Ronaldo and Ronaldo from Rooney. It was a counter-attack that began with Vidic hitting a long pass from United’s six-yard box.
United’s third goal dismayed Brown, who prides himself on his team’s acumen at set-pieces. It was so simple, a corner from Rooney and a header by Ronaldo that pinged past Myhill off McShane. Early in the second half Hull conceded again from a corner by Rooney. Ferdinand drew defenders with a near-post run and Vidic, arriving untracked, finished on the volley.
United had already been careless with their finishing on other occasions, notably when Ronaldo smashed wide when teed up by Berbatov, but seemed in minimal danger. It was 4-1, Hull’s goal, a first-half equaliser, coming when Daniel Cousin got across Patrice Evra to score with a perfect glancing header from Andy Dawson’s equally faultless set-piece delivery. But then the madness started.
Rooney miscontrolled a Carrick pass to waste an opportunity to make it 5-1 and Evra lost his senses when caught under a high ball with Mendy closing. His confused header - it was unclear whether the intention was clearance or back pass – plopped up and Mendy lobbed Edwin van der Sar. Racing back to goal, Vidic dived to hook away the ball but not before it crossed the line.
Rooney (twice), Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez all missed easy chances before, amazingly, Geovanni scored his penalty and United found themselves clinging on for the last nine minutes. Rooney blew his bald top, was booked for a high tackle on Turner and fortunate Dean ignored his subsequent show of dissent.
“You’ve got to credit Hull but not taking our chances is the annoying thing. We had 10 or 1 clear chances [in fact I counted 13 not including the goals]. Fritter them away and you almost end up embarrassed,” Ferguson said.
MAN UNITED:Van der Sar 6, Neville 6, Ferdinand 5, Vidic 7, Evra 4, Ronaldo 7, Carrick 7 (Giggs 72min), Anderson 7 (O’Shea 88min), Nani 6 (Tevez 64min), Berbatov 8, Rooney 6.
HULL: Myhill 8, McShane 6, Turner 6, Zayatte 6, Dawson 6, Marney 5, Hughes 5 (Mendy 59min), Boateng 6 (Folan 86min), Geovanni 7, King 6 (Halmosi 63min), Cousin 7
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