TheSportsCampus

The final Saturday of November provided some exciting fare in the Premiership with Manchester United emerging the big winners closing the gap to league leaders Chelsea to just a couple of points thanks to a hat-trick from Wayne Rooney. West Ham played out an 8 goal non-thriller with Burnley at Upton Park, while Wigan recovered from their embarrasing loss to Tottenham last week with a solid home win against Sunderland. The other three games in the League tonight ended in draws, but had plenty of flashpoints and entertainment.

Former Chelsea boss Avram Grant made his debut as manager of Portsmouth for the second time in his Premiership career against champions Manchester United. Portsmouth were well worth the admission money in the early exchanges mixing it up well in the first half, and perhaps even creating the better chances. Their lack of quality in front of goal made it perfectly clear why quality strikers are both a dying breed and so exceptionally well paid with Aruna Dindane and Frederic Piquionne quite wasteful upfront.

United won a rather fortuitious penalty half way through the first period with Wayne Rooney feeling the contact from Michael Brown and taking a tumble which met the referee's approval. He got up, dusted himself off and stroked the ball to the keeper's left to put United ahead. Portsmouth, however, got a lifeline in the match less than 10 minutes later when the ref Mike Dean made perhaps the worst penalty decision of the year (well perhaps even with the Alex Song blow at Carlon Cole at Upton Park earlier this month) evening the count up with Kevin-Prince Boateng finding the back of the net. Though as yet unexplained we believe the decision went Pompey's way for a tug of the shirt by Nemanja Vidic.

The half ended with the scores tied and the match looking incredibly scrappy with Darren Fletcher throwing in his usual cotterie of tackles and riling up the opposition. Vidic found himself in the referee's notebook and was flirting with danger despite it.

Wayne Rooney beat the offside trap early in the second half to put United back ahead. A third penalty on the night, definitely more clear cut than the first two, but still rather soft by Premiership standards saw Rooney get his hat-trick as early as the 54th minute, and gave United a two goal cushion. Portsmouth made a handful of changes bringing on Kanu, Utaka and Tommy Smith at different stages in the half as they desperately searched for some quality in the final third. However, despite 24 shots on goal, 10 more than United on the night failed to find the back of the net a second time. Ryan Giggs put the icing on the cake for United adding a fourth from a freekick in the 87th minute, which was also incidentally his 100th in the league. Final Score, Portsmouth 1 - 4 Manchester United, and the gap to Chelsea cut to 2 points, a perfect night for the champions.

Crosstown rivals Manchester City however lacked both the quality and the luck of their neighbours as the succumbed to their 7th consecutive draw in the Premier League. After a very even first half, Man City were rather fortunate to head into the break with a 1-0 lead against Hull City thanks to a deflected strike from Shaun Wright-Phillips in stoppage time. Hull worked exceptionally hard all game and were unlucky to be denied by a goal line clearance from Joleon Lescott after Richard Garcia had beaten Shay Given in goal.

However, Hull were to get their just rewards somewhat luckily themselves when the referee awarded a penalty in the 82nd minute for a (non) hand ball from Lescott or a drag on Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink from Kolo Toure (either would have been a harsh call). Jimmy Bullard stepped up to convert it and then produced the performance of the night celebrating by sitting his team down in the very spot where Phil Brown rather infamously delivered his half-time team talk at Eastlands last season and wagging his finger at his teammates. Hull hung on for the point and stepped further away from the relegation zone, up to 14th in the League.

The 'crazy game' of the night came at Upton Park where West Ham scored five goals through Jack Collison, Junior Stanislas, Carlton Cole, Guillermo Franco, Luis Jimenez including two guess what, penalties, before conceding three on the trot to Burnley to end the game 5-3! That result brought the Hammers out of the bottom three, two points clear of Bolton, who slipped to 17th following a 1-1 away draw to Fulham. A 75th minute stike from Damien Duff denying Bolton a crucial win after Ivan Klasnic had given them a first half lead.

Elsewhere in the Premiership, Wigan took advantage of a defensive lapse from Sunderland to restore some pride with a 1-0 home win, Hugo Rodallega getting on the scoresheet, while Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City played out a dull nil-nil draw at Ewood Park.

Saturday Scores:

Blackburn Rovers 0 - 0 Stoke City
Fulham 1 - 1 Bolton Wanderers
Manchester C. 1 - 1 Hull City
Portsmouth 1 - 4 Manchester United
West Ham United 5 - 3 Burnley
Wigan Athletic 1 - 0 Sunderland

File Photograph copyright: Barry Zee

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