Victory still proves elusive but that old United feeling is back

LAST week, my crystal ball was throbbing impressively.

“I’m not the only one approaching the Newcastle game at OT with a soupcon of trepidation...for once, I’m not going to be presumptuous about the three home points.”

It’s funny how you can get these premonitions in the run-up to a game: and, let’s be frank, many of us felt in our bones that the derby defeat was coming too (although none foresaw the extent). That said, Saturday was not a cause for knee jerk over-reaction.

“We ended up battering them — it’s just that our finishing was cack,” as one of my colleagues unimpeachably and succinctly summarised it. I’d add a worried word about Ashley Young’s drop in form, and a tut or two for Hernandez’s misfiring offside-trap reactions, but otherwise there’s little more to be said.

By the time we were digesting the Sunday paper reports of the match, life had dramatically moved on. The untimely death of Gary Speed seems to have brought the whole of football up short. As is always the case in such matters, many suddenly feel rather sheepish about having allowed themselves to take so many trivialities so seriously, and there have been plenty parroting variations of “it really puts X into perspective”.

But the whole of football is trivial, so let’s not beat ourselves up about it any further — and let’s pretend the Carling Cup quarter-finals really matter.

Yes, sorry: that was a leap too far, wasn’t it? Unless we’re playing City in it, no one cares. Doubtless we’ll be seeing a few fresh faces tonight but, for once, that’s a prospect to welcome, if they are to include Messrs Pogba and Morrison.

The former needs games, and fast, if he is not to be tempted away by one of the Euro-giants currently pursuing him.

As for the latter, Morrison may well be the most entertaining employee at Old Trafford. On the Red Issue website, there’s a permanently active discussion thread devoted just to him, detailing on an almost daily basis his latest scrapes and japes. He could end up as The New Balotelli — in both senses of the term. That is, of course, a good thing: he excites and fascinates.

Of course, I’m presuming they’re in the frame. But there’s no saying what Fergie’s kaleidoscope is going to throw up for us tonight, as no one would have guessed the sides that ran out against Arsenal or Leeds.

Still, let’s not complain too much. Entertainment and tension are back, and in the nick of time after a largely tedious month. Last week’s Euro game was an absolute cracker, and the last five heartstopping minutes on Saturday almost justified the ticket price alone. We’ve emerged without a win from either but at least I feel like I have been watching Manchester United matches.

I’m not sure we can expect too much of the same this weekend at Villa, who appear to have settled for dull but well-organised McLeishian mediocrity.

Those happy days when O’Neill had a bunch of young Englishmen buzzing in a team supervised by a supposedly benevolent Randy Lerner now seem a long way away, don’t they? Let’s hope Young is in the mood to ram the point home.

*Richard Kurt