Many Are Called. Few Succeed. Manchester United: Beyond the Promised Land

On the day when thousands lined the rain-lashed streets of Belfast to pay their respects and say goodbye to George Best we ended the most traumatic and emotive of weeks by recording our biggest win of the season. Perhaps it wasnt much of a contest before the game even kicked off especially with Pompey's current managerial changes and with morale at an all time low over down in the south coast.

Lets take nothing away from our boys tho, we dominated possesion throughout the game and limited Portsmouth to just a couple of shots on target. We were sound at the back apart from a few concentration lapses by Wes Brown and Silvestre. Rio had a pretty decent game at the back. I was rather surprised that Neville didnt even make the bench considering he's just been named captain.

Sir Alex finally got it right in keeping Fletcher on the bench. We finally had 11 men on the field for once. Giggs did rather well on his return having recovered from his fractured cheekbone. He got in fairly decent crosses in the first half which led to Scholesy's first goal of the season. Lets hope the floodgates are now well and truly open for scholesy to go on and get a further 10 goals this season. Scholesy and Smith dominated in the centre and controlled the game to suit our pace.

It was nice to see our forwards and wingers tracking back and assisted in defence. I've got to mention Park, Giggs and Rooney for working their socks off. Smith didn't get stuck in as much as he usually does but he's improving with his positional sense with every game. Ruud and Rooney didnt do all that badly upfront scoring a goal apiece. Having said that, they definitely have had better games. They missed a hatful of chances in the first half.

Ronaldo was excellent once he came on. Terrorized the Pompey left back down the right wing. Never gave him even a moments rest, delivered the final ball at the right time, didnt dwell on dribbling and dribbling and losing the ball like he's accustomed to. He definitely was the catalyst for our win. Hope he stays in this form for the Benefica game back in his home nation. Saha looked really sharp up front playing alongside Ruud and Rooney in the limited time he was given. Bring on Benefica as we march into the next round of the champs league.

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