Manchester United v Crawley Town
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The story of one of United's most infamous supporters
54 min: Torres steams down the middle of the park but lets the ball run too far ahead of him and clatters into Rafael as he lunges. He's in the book. It's the last act of the day for Rafael - he's not injured, he was going off anyway - as he's replaced by Smalling.
51 min: Gibson and Hunt combine well down the right, the cross swung in only just evading Tubbs in the centre. Then O'Shea and Tubbs come together in the United box as they chase a ball down the inside-left channel. A lot of cries from the away section, but that's never a penalty.
49 min: The ball drops from the sky on the edge of the United area. Smith has time to hit a volley - though not much time, as Brown is right by him to block what looked a goalbound effort.
47 min: This has started in end-to-end fashion. A couple of positive sorties by Crawley, Bulman and Smith causing some bother down the left, then a long throw into the box that O'Shea has to deal with using base skills. Then, up the other end, Obertan zips down the left and hits a low cross into the centre. Mills hacks clear before Rooney can get close.
46 min: Rooney immediately bales down the right and lumps a cross into the side netting. A statement of intent.
And we're off again! A change by Manchester United, and one that's very flattering to the non-league side: Anderson is replaced by Wayne Rooney. The home side set the ball rolling again.
HALF TIME: Manchester United 1-0 Crawley Town. Well, Crawley have done pretty well there, you would have to say. They're not out of the cup yet! Well, they sort of are, but you know wha! t I mean .
44 min: Crawley are finishing the half strongly. First Torres steals the ball in midfield and feeds Gibson, who has half a chance to shoot from the edge of the United D but hesitates and lays a momentum-extracting pass out to the right. Then Smith isn't far away at all from clipping a reverse ball down the inside-right channel to set Tubbs free. Some nice football there.
43 min: Run of the match for Crawley by Howell, who zips down the left and sends a decent-ish cross into the centre. If McAllister was nine feet tall, he'd have got a head on that. Has Howell been watching Bebe?
40 min: Hernandez is caught 20 yards offside. Dear Lord. But he makes up for it a minute later with a lovely figure-of-eight spin down the left, his fizzing cross evading everyone in the middle. The ball breaks on the other side to Gibson, who sends the ball back in for Obertan to miscontrol while six yards out. "I for one think Bebe has done remarkably well for Man United if that picture of him is anything to go by," writes Sean Moore. "Give the lad a break - he's only got one foot, for heaven's sake."
38 min: Obertan bombs down the left, cuts inside, and belabours a shot straight at Kuipers. It's parried well. Then Darron Gibson has another dig from long range; the keeper's behind that one too.
37 min: Fabio's barged over in the area by McFadzean, who really is no nonsense. The referee's having none of it. A minute or so later, Fabio scoots down the left, his low cross poked wide by the lunging Hernandez. United are given a corner for free, and waste it.
34 min: Darron Gibson has been United's best player by a distance. Now he curls a lovely low pass down the inside-left channel to release Fabio. The full-back really should score, but clumsily flicks an effort well wide left.
32 min: Old Trafford is very quiet, despite the breakthrough. "Shall we sing a song for you?" chant the away support. A fair point, made confidently in the knowledge that criticising the single-figure crowd Craw! ley took to Wrexham recently isn't as easily done via the medium of popular song.
28 min: GOAL!!! Manchester United 1-0- Crawley Town. A beautiful ball from Darron Gibson, down the inside-left channel, frees Hernandez in the area. The striker pauses, the ball clanking between his feet, and allows McFadzean to poke behind for a corner. From which comes the first goal: after a bit of faffing around down the left, Gibson sends an inswinger into the heart of the box, Brown gently flicking the ball on, into the bottom-right corner, keeper Kuipers rooted to the spot. Well done, plucky United!
26 min: A corner from United's Gibson down the left. He can't clear the first man, for goodness sake, but gets another chance to deliver as the ball's shuttled back to him. This time he knocks in a dangerous ball to the far post, forcing Mills to turn the ball straight behind for another corner. This one's wasted, though there's a sense United have suddenly turned up the gas.
24 min: United, on the other hand, won't be particularly pleased. Crawley are getting decent ball time, McAllister in particular enjoying plenty of it. At one point he evades three challenges down the left, albeit heading in the wrong direction. Then he heads goalwards from ten yards, without much power, but still.
21 min: Smith, eight yards out, nearly gets his outstretched leg to a long throw from the left. United break through Obertan, but he's eventually harried in midfield and his pass out right to Hernandez removes all momentum from the attack. Crawley will be very pleased with themselves so far. Here's Linda Howard, who was in a wee bit of a hot funk at the state of Everton's stripy socks earlier this afternoon. "I'm still fixated on the darned socks," she begins, quipping furiously. "Crawley's red and white striped ones strike me as very Where's Waldo, which of course would indicate a tendency to disappear in a crowd. Or are they c! andy can es which means - wait for it - they will get licked? I need to get a life."
17 min: Crawley are looking to knock it around when they can. Smith, Torres and Gibson ping a couple of pretty triangles near the centre circle, but the cream rises, Carrick gliding in and making off with the ball. Gibson slides in and upends the Manchester United man in unceremonious fashion, and is probably lucky to escape a booking, showing studs as he was.
14 min: Anderson slips Hernandez clear down the inside-right channel, but the striker's offside by inches. That's a slice of luck for Crawley, doubly so because McFadzean was all over Hernandez like a bad suit.
11 min: A fantastic effort by Crawley's Gibson, who volleys towards the top-right corner of the United net from 25 yards out on the left! His dipping effort isn't too far away, either, floating just wide right, though Lindegaard had it covered were it on target.
8 min: Obertan flies down the left wing, looking extremely dangerous until he knocks the ball a wee bit too far ahead of him. McFadzean is over quickly from a central position to whip the ball off his toe and high into the stands. Great anticipation. "Hope Bebe doesn't embarrass us," writes United fan Gerry Nicholson. "I am very relaxed, so much so that I don't mind if Crawley win (mmm not sure I mean that), the FA Cup should supply some romance. Or Bebe gets a hatrick, ha ha I am in the groove today." A Bebe hat-trick? That's not so much in the groove as being lead trumpeter in the Count Basie Orchestra horn section.
5 min: No other scares for Crawley yet, though. United are knocking it around at the back a lot, Crawley chasing after shadows. Eventually a long ball's pumped down the inside-left channel, catching Hernandez offside. "By all accounts the best advice to Crawley Town's players is simply to go out there and enjoy themselves," says Gary Naylor, who has scraped himself off the ceiling after Everton's win at Chelsea. "So will they take out some comfy chairs, plenty of! beers, get some takeaways delivered to the centre-circle, try out Call of Duty Black Ops, perhaps a few hands of poker, before settling down with some racy DVDs on the wide screen TV towards the end of the evening?" Yes, this is what you've got planned tonight, isn't it? Shamelessly transparent.
2 min: A couple of corners to United down the right. The first is hacked away by Hunt, the second sees Obertan fly a low ball right across the face of the six-yard box from the right-hand edge of the area. Any touch of that, by either attacker or defender, and we'd have seen the opener. A nice open start, but then did anybody expect anything else?
And we're off! And it's a really confident start by the away side, McAllister tearing down the left and sending in a cross that skims off the top of Gibson's head. Let's hope that's not them shot their bolt already.
The teams are out. Not a peep of that preposterous new anthem featuring Richie. That's got to be good news, yes? United are in their red shirts and white shorts, you knew this, while Crawley are in their white shirts and red shorts. There's nice. There are 9,000 Crawley fans in the crowd, 8,985 more than their usual away support.
Kick off: 5.15pm.
Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire)
Crawley Town: Kuipers, Hunt, Mills, McFadzean, Howell, Gibson, Smith, Bulman, Torres, Tubbs, McAllister.
Subs: Shearer, Rusk, Rents, Wilson, Cook, Napper, Brodie.
Manchester United: Lindegaard, Rafael, O'Shea, Brown, Fabio, Gibson, Carrick, Anderson, Bebe, Hernandez, Obertan.
Subs: Rooney, Smalling, Fletcher, Kuszczak, King, Pogba, Tunnicliffe.
Having said all this, United did draw 0-0 at Old Trafford with non-league Exeter City in 2005, and Wes Brown was on the pitch that day as well. So you never know. Except we do sort of know.
Welcome to live coverage of Manchester United's bye into the quarter finals of the FA Cup. It's United's third easy draw in a row, after! a fourt h-round tie at third-division Southampton, and a third-round match against a team selected by Roy Hodgson. This time they play Crawley Town of the Blue Square Premier League, and understandably confident of victory, so much so this time that they've picked Bebe.
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