Manchester United 1 - Fulham 3 - Report


Goalscorer

By David Hobbs
October 25 2003

Manchester United crashed to a heavy 3-1 defeat by the hands of Chris Coleman's Fulham at Old Trafford. It was an incredible win by the Cottagers, winning at Old Trafford for the first time in 40 years to shock Man Utd. New Page 1

Manchester United 3 - Fulham 1 - Report
Manchester United Fulham

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1 3

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Old Trafford

Att: 67, 727

Forlan

Clark, Malbranque, Inamoto

Manchester United crashed to a heavy 3-1 defeat by the hands of Chris Coleman's Fulham at Old Trafford. It was an incredible win by the Cottagers, winning at Old Trafford for the first time in 40 years to shock Man Utd.

Sir Alex Ferguson, serving his first of two touch-line bans, severely underestimated Fulham by making a number of changes. Roy Keane and Nicky Butt were both rested all together and Paul Scholes was dropped to the bench so Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Forlan and Eric Djemba-Djemba took their places.

Fulham got off the the best of starts when they took the lead on the 3rd minute. It came from captain Lee Clark when he beat American Tim Howard to the ball from a Steed Malbranque pass. 1-0 Fulham.

United could have found themselves 2-0 fifteen minutes later when Mark Pembridge slammed the face of Tim Howard's cross-bar.

Striker Diego Forlan had United's first real chance of the game on the half-hour mark when his shot just fizzed wide of the uptight.

But Forlan equalized just before the interval when he got sent one-on-one with Dutch international keeper Edwin van der Sar and calmly slotted the ball into the back of the net. An excellent finish by the Uruguayan.

                                                                       Half Time- Manchester United 1 - Fulham 1

Mikael Silvestre had a horrible time in defence and got replaced by Quinton Fortune at half-time.

Forlan could have put United into the lead from a similar position when scoring the equalizer but the outcome was slightly different this time. His shot was high and wide of van der Sar's goal.

Fulham went two put on the 65th minute when Rio Ferdinand completely missed a hear and the ball fell to the path of Steed Malbranque to slot home for the visitors.  2-1 Fulham.

Junichni Inamoto rounded off Fulham's memorable win on the 79th minute when the Japanese international lobbed Tim Howard.

United were going gung-ho, trying to restore some pride and brought on David Bellion for Eric Djemba-Djemba. But it was all too late, Fulham wrapped up the win and stunned United.

                                                                       Final Score- Manchester United 1 - Fulham 3

The Line-Ups

MANCHESTER UNITED: Howard; G Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre (Fortune, 46), O’Shea; Ronaldo (Scholes, 69), Djemba-Djemba (Bellion, 79), Butt, Giggs; Forlan, van Nistelrooy.
Substitutes: Carroll, Fletcher.

FULHAM: van der Sar; Volz, Knight, Goma, Bonissell (Djetou, 74); Malbranque, Clark, Legwinski, Pembridge (Inamoto, 32), Boa Morte (Hayles, 86); Saha.
Substitutes: Melville, Crossley.

ManUtdWeb Man of the Match - Diego Forlan
The Uruguayan international was by far United's best player and his goal put United back into the game.

He had a few chances that he should have scored but nevertheless a good performance. 

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