Post Match report for the Man Utd game - Saturday, 19th January 2019

PREMIER LEAGUE; Manchester United v Brighton

ALBION ROUTINE VICTIMS OF UNSTOPPABLE UNITED REVIVAL


VENUE; Old Trafford, Manchester - twelfth away match of 23 fixtures.
RESULT; 2-1 ~ Gross . (h-t 2-0) . SHAPE; 4-5-1 . REF; made the right calls, bearing in mind where he plied officialdom.

PREAMBLE; as at beginning of this campaign, Albion played United & Liverpool in consecutive weeks. These reciprocal fixtures would now be a measure of how much the inexperienced south-coast club was dealing with second season syndrome.
GATE; 74,532 . WEATHER; grey with periods of precipitation.

CHRIS HUGHTON was limited for making full choices of selection as Bissouma had joined Bernardo & Izquierdo in the treatment room. In the event he elected to go with tried & tested as usual.

TEAM; . . . . . . . 27 Button
. . 22 Montoya, 4 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 3 Bong
. . 20 March, 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 9 Locadia
. . . . . . . . . 13 Gross, . . . . . . . 17 Murray

BENCH; 23 Steele, 2 Bruno, 14 Balogun, 7 Kayal (82), 11 Knockaert (60), 10 Andone (60), 42 Gyokeres.


GOALS; 1-0 - 27. Hosts were on the front foot in all senses. Bong was adjudged to be responsible for the spot kick which Button waved a hand at.
2-0 - 42. The England striker weaved a way through, on a mission to get his name in lights with a superb finish.
2-1 - 72. GROSS completed a move set up by Propper, when Albion had men to spare in the area.

INCIDENTS; 36 - play was interrupted briefly when Duffy came together with an opponent. The big c-d shook off any reaction while the other man was still down.

YELLOWS; none. Hosts gained their one and only card right at the death with an illegal challenge.

SUBS; 60 - a double change on the hour mark showed intent to be offensive when Andone & Knockaert replaced Murray & March. 82 - Kayal went on and Gross came off as visitors continued to go forward.


ANALYSIS; Albion left the theatre of dreams knowing their aspirations of causing an unlikely upset had been imaginary all along. The psychological effect of conceding a second setback just prior to the interval gave them a huge performance to deliver on this ultra big stage. Bedecked in home colours, travellers kept chasing the play and introduction of new characters in the final act threw physical hesitation into the pit as they tried to rewrite the script. But in truth it is a game of numbers and give international class personnel chances to shine and they shall, by grabbing the subsequent headlines.

NUMBERS; shape 433-451, poss 56%-44%, on target 5-3, off target 9-3, corners 6-5, fouls 11-11, yellows 1-0, subs 3-3. MoM - Dunk.

FS

MID JANUARY TABLE: bottom half
Po . Pl . -GD . Pt
12 . 23 . -09 . 30 Bournemouth
13 . 23 . -07 . 26 Brighton
14 . 23 . -09 . 22 Palace
15 . 23 . -15 . 22 Southampton
16 . 23 . -20 . 22 Burnley
17 . 23 . -12 . 21 Newcastle
18 . 23 . -25 . 19 Cardiff
19 . 22 . -29 . 14 Fulham
20 . 22 . -24 . 11 Huddersfield