United fresh out of luck and goals

THE stunning incompetence shown by linesman John Flynn understandably dominated post-match proceedings at Old Trafford while detracting from an undeniably crucial point — Manchester United have stopped scoring goals.

The early-season demolitions of Arsenal and, to a lesser extent, Chelsea now seem a long and distant memory on the back of a run that has seen United fail to score more than one goal in a league game since beating Norwich on the first day of October.

Wayne Rooney’s last league goal was on September 9 and, while the six league games since that Norwich victory have brought three wins, two draws and one defeat — an average, if not disastrous, sequence — the fact that the opposition in that run has included Everton, Swansea and Sunderland suggests that a team of United’s quality and ambition should be doing better.

“I’m very frustrated we didn’t win. I think we deserved the win,” said full-back Patrice Evra. “It’s a draw but you have to take the positives and I think the manager has mentioned that as well.

“I think the team has not played that way for a long time and created so many chances. If you want to win the league, you have to score more goals.

“Against Arsenal, we created eight chances and scored eight. Today, we had maybe seven chances and only one goal. Sometimes, that’s football — it’s very strange. It’s frustrating but it’s a positive game for Manchester United.”

That, too, was the party line from Alex Ferguson, who seemed almost blasé about his side’s failure to convert chances into goals.

Naturally, he was not blasé about the decision of referee Jones to change his mind and listen to assistant Flynn in awarding Newcastle a 63rd-minute penalty following a perfectly fair challenge from Rio Ferdinand on Hatem Ben Arfa, Demba Ba converting the unwarranted penalty.

That cancelled out a 49th-minute opening goal from Javier Hernandez, the result of defender Stephen Taylor clearing the ball against the Mexican forward’s body.

And therein lies the problem for Ferguson. It took an enormous stroke of luck to score even one goal against dogged Newcastle who, it should be said in mitigation, did have to defend heroically and enjoy an enormous stroke of luck of their own to escape with a point, especially after the 78th-minute sending off of Jonas Gutierrez for a second yellow card.

All too often this season, Ferguson has absolved his players of blame for failing to convert chances and said everything will be all right in the long run. Meanwhile, leaders Manchester City continue to average well over three goals a game and threaten to take a stranglehold on the title.

Certainly, THAT derby defeat against City last month may have had a huge bearing on the current modus operandi at Old Trafford, with the dawning realisation that Ferguson had to shore up his defence. But that still does not explain the glut of missed chances on Saturday.

“At the start of the season, we did very well — scored a lot of goals and conceded a lot of goals. After the big accidents against City, when they scored six goals, we decided to defend better and we know, if we have a strong defence, we’re going to win games,” said Evra.

“It’s why we looked like the old United when winning 1-0 every time and winning the league in the end. Today, we looked more like we played at the beginning of the season and I know we’re going to score more than one goal per game.

“There’s big frustration as I definitely wanted to finish that game being just two points behind City but the league is a marathon not a sprint.

“There’s a long way to go and I’m confident if the team keeps playing that well, I’m convinced we’re going to win the league.”

Among Newcastle’s many heroes, goalkeeper Tim Krul was worthy of special attention with a string of incredible saves, especially one from a 20-yard Evra shot and a point-blank stop that kept out a Nemanja Vidic set-piece header.

If Newcastle manager Alan Pardew ever had doubts about the abilities of the Dutchman, they have long since been removed.

“I thought when I first arrived here he still had a lot to do,” said Pardew. “His first little spell in the team he looked a bit nervous but this year we gave him the belief that he’s number one and had a chance — ‘go and take it’. And really he hasn’t put a foot wrong this season, he’s grown from strength to strength and looks an accomplished keeper. We only think about the next game. It might be a bit of a cliché but we’re not dreaming or anything, we’re just thinking of beating Chelsea and we prepare from now for that.”