It is hard to believe that we are already at the penultimate game of the league season. It feels like only yesterday that I was taking my seat in the East Stand for the first match against Newcastle United. Come 12.45pm on Saturday I will be taking my seat in the Stretford End to watch our final home game against Arsenal and I ask myself is it really all over so soon?
As a United supporter going back to 1980’s I am hard pushed to remember a more memorable season than this one, well if we exclude the Treble back in ’99 that is! Two defeats to Liverpool in the league and a gut-wrenching defeat to Everton in the FA Cup semi-final may have been the lowest points of our season, but the highs have far outnumbered the lows. Ranging from Carling Cup glory to becoming the first English club to win the FIFA Club World Cup, from setting a new British clean sheet record to standing on the cusp of Premier League and Champions League glory, there have been few seasons like this.
Whilst Rome looms on the horizon, retaining the Premier League title is what the season is all about. Winning the league at any ground is special, but it means even more to supporters for the triumph to be secured on home soil.
Back when I was nearly a teenager, controversial American hip-hop band, The Beastie Boys, sang “You gotta fight for your right to party,” and I know that is exactly what the players will be doing on Saturday for another 90 minutes – fighting for their right (and ours) to celebrate!
going to mean just as much to me. For so long United supporters have had to put up with the incessant boasts from Liverpool fans about how many more times than us they have won the league that it will be of immeasurable pleasure to draw level with them.
For 36 league games that have come before the players have toiled to put United on the brink of glory and I implore everyone inside Old Trafford on Saturday to make a noise like they have never done before to help drive the team across the finishing line.
It will not be easy to overcome an Arsenal team that will no doubt be looking for revenge for their Champions League exit. I appreciate the challenge they will provide, but I cannot help feeling more than a tinge of excitement now we are so close to the finishing line. I hope though that unlike the recent games at Old Trafford against Aston Villa and Spurs that we do not have to go through the mill emotionally.
As our mosaics in the Champions League have boasted over the past two seasons – BELIEVE! I certainly do. We will prevail on Saturday and then we can let down our hair (though in my case there isn’t much of that these days!) and party!
When I first started supporting the Reds, the league was the Holy Grail. After we finally secured our first title in 26 years in the 1992/93 season I thought nothing could ever match that feeling again, but this season title success is
Ujungpandang Time
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