In answer to all our prayers – in a non-churchy way – Rooney was relieved of penalty duty and a goal was the result. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I don’t subscribe to the notion that players ‘should’ always score from the penalty spot, but Rooney definitely isn’t an artisan in the craft (especially the Rooney we see more of nowadays, who prefers form over function). I expect RVP will take over when on the pitch, but Giggsy certainly...

We’re inviting some of our Twitter friends, and now resident thought sharer Iwan Lehnert, to share some of their ‘Pre and Post Match’ thoughts with us from now on. You can still enjoy my nonsensical, confusing, punctuation buffets below their proper good ones… Iwan (@IwanLehnert): At the risk of alienating the gentleman below me, I don’t miss Dimitar Berbatov. He’s far better off playing for a club where he has the freedom to play how...

It’s nice to steal two points. It reminded me of the days of Eric, up until they scored … RVP is already, to my mind, creeping closer towards that bracket (I maybe drunk off admiration for him – ask me again in a couple of days). MOTD2 were poor in their assessment of this game. Alan Hansen dusted off his ‘De Gea having an issue with crosses’ line. Awful. AND the #Bantz that continued after...

There’s a lot of talk of Spurs doing the double over us which, in spite of my usual positive – never predicting a loss – outlook, I have to reluctantly admit wouldn’t be all together surprising. Both teams have come a relatively long way since the earlier game at Old Trafford, in which “we ran out of time”, but that doesn’t mean the scoreline will be too dissimilar – one thing you can be sure...

Which game was it when Giggsy came on earlier in the season and was manic and weird? Braga? Well, I think we may well have been witnessing an exorcism of sorts, cus since then he’s been getting steadily more influential. Last night he was twisting blood like it was 94. I love Ryan Giggs. I can’t say as I’d go as far as to say he’s “an incredible human being” – sorry all, but he’s...

Okay, so it’s a fairly straightforward question: Which picture do you think I should use for my exhibition? Basically, I’m asking which is your personal favourite? This is in no way a vanity project, where I just want you to tell me nice things about my work … BUT if you want to add a reason, then that’s also a nice thing to do. The one (or ones) with the most votes will be writ...

It’s near impossible to talk about this game without mentioning THAT goal. But I’m not going to mention THAT goal – it’s in the past, THAT goal is. We have to move on from THAT goal, or we will be forever talking about THAT goal and not talking about things that aren’t THAT goal. THAT doesn’t count, does it?! I do hope that Joe Cole can do nothing all game, apart from inappropriately showboat and...

He may no longer play for United, but we have managed to get our grubby little hands on the archived, top-secret, investigations he undertook while he was still under our employment... At Manchester United, without regular football as a distraction, Micky Owen, with the help of side-kick Berba and spirit guide Eric provided the club and SAF with a headache, no I mean, erm … oh no, I do actually mean headache. At first this...

Was never in doubt was it? I got a text from Rob, my Liverpool supporting mate, asking, “Hold on. how u gunna come back from a winning position?”… It’s always nice to beat the baddies and it’s even nicer when you deserve it, not as if deserving it is integral to the better football narratives – it’s nice nonetheless. In RVP we’ve got a proper match winning player, of the kind – with Rooney’s “issues”...