For Pete's Sake

So, Man Utd played Chelsea today, in what most over-the-top pundits were touting as the match that could decide the league. It was an entertaining match and, for a little while at least, I thought we (United) may come away with the 3 points. However Chelsea did what they do best and that’s score from a set-piece. In the end I think the result was fair enough, I’d have taken a draw at the start of the day so I’m not too disappointed. I think we had a really good first-half playing with pace and confidence and it was nice to see Saha score; not just because it’s good for my fantasy team but also it’ll help him get over his penalty miss against Celtic. If you want to read a match report, check out the BBC’s.

In other news Cat and I have had a guest staying with us since Thursday. Cat met her when she went to Taize earlier this year. So it was nice to have someone staying over and I also enjoyed showing our guest the sights of Bristol and what have you. Coinciding with this was last nights entertainment which was the stage show Cats. It was fun but not as good as the same production I saw a year or so ago. Some of the leads weren’t as good but there you go. The night was fun and we all enjoyed ourselves, we also stopped by a friend of ours birthday. I’m also looking forward to next weekend when I’m going to visit my brother in Edinburgh. Haven’t seen him since the wedding and since he’s just got engaged to Ruth it’d be nice to catch up on things.

Swinging back to gaming finished another season on FM. Really enjoying the Lower League Management side of the game. Certainly a lot more rewarding if a heck of a lot more challenging. Certainly helps pass the hours and what have you.

Well it’s that time again, yes, The Ashes have returned and it’s seemingly business as usual for Australia (I’m going on the first 2 days, I’m currently watching the 3rd days’ play). It is, so far, quite a carbon copy of how The Ashes started last time. At Lords Australia beat us well and truly but the next 3 games, well, we all know what happened there so I’m not starting to get all depressed about it just yet. However I must say that for me, we shouldn’t be playing Harmison or Giles. I can’t think of a replacement for Harmy so I’ll concede that but I would play Monty over Giles any day of the week regardless of the fact that Giles can bat. Monty gets wickets and I’d have 5 for over 30 runs any day of the week.

In other news United managed to lose to Celtic mid-week and if I’m honest, Celtic deserved their win. The free-kick, although shouldn’t have been given, was masterfully put away. I haven’t seen one taken that well in a long time and to lose, well, I’d rather lose to a goal like that than some goal-line scramble. I mean yes, we had a penalty and the keeper did well to save, but where Saha put it, any goalkeeper worth their salt would have saved it as long as they guess the right way. It certainly puts an interesting spin on the game against Chelsea on Sunday. I’m really looking forward to it because if we win, our lead at the top increases to 6 points, lose and we’re even again. If I was being honest I’d settle for a draw.

Going into gaming (a new topic for the blog) I’ve been playing a lot more Football Manager recently, in-particular doing Lower League Management (LLM). I find it a heck of a lot more rewarding staving off relegation or scraping promotion in the bottom leagues than taking Man United to glory. It’s harder and a true test of you abilities as you have to be canny. I also follow guidelines from the LLM forum at Sports Interactive’s website to make it as close to life as possible. So I only buy players I’ve scouted etc, certainly making the game a lot more fun. You can see how I get on in my current game here or, for future games, here.