March 9 2005

Man Yoo couldn't get past Gabor

Manchester United may have had an outside chance of nicking the title off Chelsea going into Saturday's game, writes Neil McSteen.

Now they face a battle to avoid having to qualify for the Champions League from a resurgent Arsenal.

Once again Palace didn't read the script, failing to roll over and let the "mighty" Reds notch a routine win to get within three points of Mourinho's men.

We even did the decent thing and went down to 10 men for the last third of the game, yet millions of pounds of talent still failed to beat Gabor Kiraly.

Of course the result was reported as United having failed to win at Selhurst. In fairness this is partially correct, yet it doesn't tell the whole story.

The hysterical headlines of Sir Alex Ferguson picking a weakened team miss the point. Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Ryan Giggs and Alan Smith in place of Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes how the hell is that an inferior selection?

What any Palace fan will tell you is that, yes, we rode our luck at times but majestic performances from Mikele Leigertwood, Danny Granville and Tom Soares, combined with a determination not to lose, was the real story.

Live Croydon Guardian text commentary