Kevin Pilkington shares his thoughts on last night’s win at Blackpool for 7Cantonas.com readers.
The talk on everyone’s lips was another incredible comeback from United; 2 down with 18 minutes remaining was a huge task even by the Red Devil’s standards. With our away record as it is, Kevin was quick to point out how important last nights result could turn out to be. “I think it was a massive win last night given that it sends United 5 points clear at the top. I thought it would be a difficult game and I did predict a scoring game as well!”
He did just that; predicting a 3-2 win on his Twitter account before kick off! However, the nature of the comeback couldn’t be predicted in the 70th minute; Pilksy (just as Alan Tonge did earlier on 7Cantonas.com) points out that it wasn’t luck. “It just goes to show that they are never beat as history will tell you. The fact that they always seem to score late goals is no fluke. They put teams under so much pressure that they will eventually grind them down.”
Blackpool have scored in every home game this season so their goals were no surprise. Rio Ferdinand was missing and Chris Smalling played in his absence; both Blackpool goals came from a similar area, an area Smalling might have been expected to command. Kevin feels that although Rio’s absence was felt, Chris shouldn’t be made a scapegoat. “Obviously Rio is a big miss as he would be for any team,” says the former United keeper. “The fact that Blackpool scored from two corners highlights the fact that he was missing. But I don’t think you can attach any blame to Chris Smalling. You look at the set and they were marking man for man and it wasn’t his man that scored either goal. In Rio’s absence I think he has done very well when filling in.”
One of the key factors in United’s turnaround was Ryan Giggs’ introduction. I asked Kevin if he felt Giggsy’s contribution was symbolic of what he can do or whether it was a case of “right time, right place” – and Pilks was in no doubt. “Ryan was fantastic when he came off the bench last night. Once again he showed why he has played at the top level for nearly 20 years. He is the type of player that can change any game and he fully deserves to be rewarded with a new contract. He still looks in peak condition and I think I might buy his fitness DVD!”
Of course, no recollection of last night would be complete without referring to Dimitar Berbatov’s brace. The Bulgarian is in fine form and Kevin stated after the Birmingham game that he felt those who criticised him for only doing it in “easier” games was unfair; a point well proved last night. Far from shirking his responsibility, Kevin feels our top scorer is thriving on how needed he is. “Berbatov is on fire at the moment! His all round game is excellent and you can’t have a go at him for being lazy. That’s just his style of play. When he’s not scoring people try to find reasons why and he gets that tag of being lazy but he’s not. At the moment he is the one scoring all the goals so United are relying on him a bit more and he seems to be thriving on it. I don’t think people should be questioning whether he can be trusted.”
Thanks to Kevin for another fantastic re-cap.
