Blackburn Rovers stunned Manchester United with a 3–2 win at Old Trafford in Saturday’s early fixture, thoroughly spoiling Sir Alex Ferguson’s 70th birthday party in the process.
Steve Kean’s basement dwellers clearly had not read the script and amazingly found themselves two goals up six minutes into the second half. Dimitar Berbatov continued his resurgence with a pair of goals to add to the hat-trick he bagged against Wigan, and with half an hour still to play everyone assumed that, having drawn level, the Red Devils would go on to take the three points.
Yet, despite incredible pressure on the visitors, United failed to find a way through the packed Rovers defense, and it was Scottish international Grant Hanley who grabbed the winning goal for the visitors in the 80th minute.
Blackburn would have been encouraged by the fact that both Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs were not even in the squad for this fixture. Former Rovers youngster Phil Jones returned to partner Michael Carrick in a makeshift central defense.
With Rafael Da Silva in the side, it was surprising that Antonio Valencia started at right back, while the former lined up in midfield alongside Ji-Sung Park with Nani on the right flank and Danny Welbeck in unfamiliar territory on the left.
A long injury list and the crowded holiday schedule had produced this unusual United line-up, but the champions still managed to dominate Blackburn in midfield. However, they could not find that final pass to create a clear opening.
After a quarter of an hour United skipper Patrice Evra started on one of his trademark forays down the left flank, but his touch let him down and he was penalized for a foul while trying to regain possession.
The subsequent free kick was taken by Blackburn’s reserve goalkeeper Mark Bunn who simply punted the ball high into the United box in the direction of big central defender Chris Samba. The Blackburn skipper tangled with Dimitar Berbatov and the United striker was adjudged to have pulled Samba down unfairly. Berbatov did have a handful of Samba’s jersey and was guilty of the penalty.
