Salford City Reds 10 Les Catalans Dragons 0

Some days are just so perfect they should be preserved in the memory forever. While this day won't be remembered for breathtaking sporting entertainment it will be remembered (by me anyway) as the day that Salford finally got their first win of the season AND United took a huge step towards winning back the title with a famous win at Anfield. Happy days!

I was up unfeasibly early for a Saturday, an admin cock-up at work had meant that I had to go to my branch of my bank to get my hands on my hard-earned pittance. Only problem being, my branch is in Leeds! After sorting out my cash & dashing back to civilisation, I got a taxi down to the Height to join everyone in the Dog for the early kick-off from Anfield. I walked in the Dog to find row after row of unfamiliar faces, a quick phone call solved the mystery "We're in the Welly" thanks for telling me lads!

Optimism was very low around the table, the feeling was we'd be more than happy with a draw. Bobby however was his usual up-beat self and was confident that Vidic would do the job for us, so much so that he'd staked 2 whole pounds of his hard-earned on the no-nonsense Serb opening the scoring. Nic & Janice turned up just before kick-off & we started to frantically look for a corner with no view of a telly to stick Janice in (she's a notorious jinx when it comes to Utd games).

The game was frenetic stuff as you'd expect from a Scouse v Utd game where the stakes are so high. To be fair Liverpool had most of it but Ronaldo always offered us a dangerous outlet. The 2nd half was real backs to the wall stuff though, the freak looked to have made the breakthrough but Van Der Sar made an amazing save & the draw was still on. It might have got better when Saha tricked his way through & was clearly brought down but a penalty? At Anfield? At the Kop end? No chance! Things got steadily worse for United; Rooney limping off, Scholesey lashing out at Scallygher (sadly not connecting) and earning a red card, John O'Shea coming on as a sub, oh dear.

As the clock ticks into the first of 4 long minutes of stoppage time that we have to hold on for, Giggs wins us a free-kick on the left. That'll waste a bit of time! Ronaldo's delivery is a beauty, low & hard, and Saha dives in but doesn't connect. However, it's enough to fool Reina who fails to collect & the rebound drops to a white shirt on the edge of the 6-yard box who sidefoots it into the roof of the Kop net. Absolute bedlam ensues.

As the bodies pile on top of me, as I hug the 10th random bloke in as many seconds, I start to realise what has just happened; John O'Shea, of all people, has written his name in United history. The man who scored the goal that will surely bring back the title is one of the players whose blinding mediocrity is the reason the trophy has spent so much time in the capital recently. The irony is fucking superb!

With the euphoria of the Utd victory fast subsiding, we turned our thoughts towards this evening's game. A win is vital & if we don't get it here then it would be a crisis point. Most of us seem confident of nicking it & a taxi is booked to take us to Weaste & a few beers in the church hall. As we make our way onto the Shed the heavens start to open. This cannot be a good sign for a fast-flowing open game (which given that we're on Sky it would be nice to serve up) & sadly I'm right. To make it worse for the viewing public, kids get in free tonight (a good move by the club if I may say so) & are given an annoying horn on their way into the ground (a shocking move by the club if I may say so). For 80 minutes a pathetic, annoying whine is the backdrop to a shocking game of RL. What an embarrassment.

The performance didn't really matter, getting the confidence boosting W was all that counted. We certainly made the perfect start with a sweeping right to left move creating the space for Luke Dorn to go over on the 6th tackle play. Johnny Wilshere added a superb conversion & all was well with the world (except for those bloody horns). If anything though, the play became even scrappier after the try. Robbo put a nice kick in for Daley Williams to chase but the Video Ref correctly ruled out the score.

The 2nd half unfortunately continued in much the same vein. We had most of the pressure & to be fair never really looked like losing, when Les Cats did pressurise us, our line defence was much, much better than in recent weeks. As the game went into the final 10 minutes, an Alker scoot found a big gap in the visitors line and the skipper touched down for the clinching score. In the dying seconds, the french failed to deal with a hopeful punt into the corner & john Wilshere appeared to have added a bit of gloss to the scoreline only to see the VR controversially chalk it off. Difficult one this one, I can see why he disallowed it but if you look at every try close enough & in super-super slo-mo, you'll eventually find something wrong with most of them.

The feeling in the Tavern afterwards was mainly one of relief at the victory, together with annoyance about those bloody horns. Of course it was a perfect opportunity to wind the Parkin clan up about earlier events at Anfield & that was too good an opportunity to miss out on. The lads were all scooting off to the Height & I was just about to join them when Nic called to say she was on her way to meet me with the girls. Shit! As it was we had a relatively uneventful night ti the Tav while I'm told I missed a classic night on the Height. Oh well, I suppose you can't have everything eh!