I've seen this game a million times at OT - completely dominate for 80 minutes, and a worrying last ten because we went to sleep. Oh well, no harm done this time. Where are you Big Bird, et al? Did you boo as Smithy's volley hit the back of the net? Lots of plusses from the game - Bellion's first half, DD finding his feet (Carlos will work wonders for him this year, I think), Giggs more like it. Down side? Miller thinks he's still in the SPL - needs to take less time on the ball - and Scholes was poor, I thought. First 3 points of the season - 80 more to come!! Hopefully, a wide player of quality to arrive this week and I'll believe there really is a Santa Claus!

A win is a win is a win, right? Small mercies with so many missing, but oh, how we struggled against a very ordinary team. Usual story of loads of possession but little penetration. Arsenal would have buried this lot by half-time. Great goal by Smith, though - I think Fergie will, when he has the choice, pair Smith with RvN rather than Saha, simply because Smith is a Fergie kind of player. He seems to have calmed down a bit, too. With Zinedine on the bench, Diego on the beach and Fortune on the sick, the only lightweights to worry about were Bellion, D-D and Miller - which is 3 too many for the self-styled biggest club in the world. Bellion took his goal well but otherwise couldn't control his breath and, like Diego, still looks short of the necessary class, D-D was patchy for the most part and Miller was ineffectual bordering on poor. Scholes was wasted up front and Giggs was as erratic as ever. Better teams than this lie ahead, so the quicker we get up to full strength the better. We still need a midfield playmaker and a better alternative to challenge Giggs, because Richardson is not the answer.

Great strike from Smithy but worrying (AGAIN) tendency for us to collapse after 70 mins. Three/four years ago we'd have gone on to turn 2-0 into a 4-0 beating but it seems that the spirit of old has gone. We need Ferdinand back badly and Heinze plus Ronnie will make a difference.

I saw the match and it's a very poor performance from us may be it's beacuse the big bois are not there but scholes played poorly too but i can't blame him thank God we won the match but the next prem macth is Blackburn away which is going to be very tough for us. i don't see us winning the prem this season with that performance. we have alot of work to do. God help us

good confidence booster for bellion djemba and others well played smithy keep it up!

For 75 minuets is was a great performance. But we do not win games with comfort anymore. We keep lettting the opposition into the game, which is making the last 10-15 minuets nerve racking. I think it is down to sloppyness from our young defenders. Silvestre is a terrific tough defender, but he still seems to lose concentration when the game seems won. Also O'Shea is still prone to making errors, which he will hopefully lose as he plays more games. Wesley Brown and Fortune do exactly the same thing, and P'Nevile when he is in defence. I think once Ferdiand and Heinze joins G,Nevile and Silvestre we will see more clean sheets. I was impressed with Djemba Djemba, he did the simple things well and worked hard. Giggs had a very good game, we critize him when he plays badly, but its important to praise him when he does well, which he did today. Bellion took his goal well and he seem to gain more confidence. He made some good runs and had another good shot saved. But he still has to improve alot, which hopefully he will do over this season. He has a heavy touch and i feel he is too quick for the ball, he can't driblle like Giggs, Ronaldo and Henry. But he does posses fantastic pace and if he can improve his ball control he will be a player. The best player on the pitch was Alan Smith by far. Took his goal brilliantly, the best goal i've seen from a United player for a while. He is also created Bellion goal with a clever flick on, or it may have been a bad header at goal. He works so hard it is great to watch. He is good in the air, holds the ball up fantasticly and he tackles defenders. The more i see of him the less i fell we need a big time striker like Rooney or Torres at the current time. We will need them to replace Neistlerooy at some point, but not for two or three years yet. We need a wide player and a striker, but more squad players who are willing to fight for a place and spend a bit more time on the bench. Whether Ferguson can find another great pro like Solskjear i don't know.

Ronaldo came in too late....we were nearly punished for that.

with smithy playing like this week in week out, van nistelrooy will score tonnes of goal. btw, thierry who?

Not a bad outing but we still lack some invention, Smith is going to be awesome and Fergies comments after the match comparing him to Hughes was a little far fetched but I can see where he is coming from.
Down side is we definately have too many wannabes in the side that I dont feel will ever make the grade, time to offload them and break open the bank and get some quality players wide right and someone who can open up these packed defenses with some accurate passes.

There was never going to be a mauling of norwich, the result is what mattered.
Not able to see the game, followed on the internet, seemed the 1st half similar to chelski game lots of possession but no ideas...?
Went 2 up and should have killed the game , but then we have never been able to do that?
Couple of questions why bother to bring on Ronaldo for the last 4 mins, he should have been on when we went 2-0 up and really put the pressure on them!
Second smith will score in midweek, who is going to be his partner up front when RVN & Saha are fit because it seems that the he is going to be very difficult to shift from the starting line...another good performance !

honestly, it is quite refreshing to see MUFC so fluid and commanding in the 80mins, the local sports team were commenting that Keane is a bit off the pace for the role of Central Back, and it is beginning to show. If he played against Pool in his new role, it will be the same as Dunne, being sent off, cause he can't compete. We need Rio and Heinze to come in and firm there up. Surprise to see MUFC let Forlan go with only smith as striker. Meaning my theory of 4-5-1 still correct.
just wondering, with the players wages all cap to make MUFC profitable, why can't we buy good players, with the PLC crying that we don't have money everytime? Don't tell me it all got sucked in like ENRON.

I think we 're looking hungrier than last season, and that's a good thing. Roy Keane was atrocious in defense (when is Wes Brown back, anyone?). Otherwise this team looks good if Fergie picks the right players instead of relying on sentiment. If Fergie replaces Miller, Fletcher and Bellion with Richardson/Kleberson/Ronaldo, we actually can keep up with Chelski and Arsenal. Unfortunately he 'll stick with at least Miller & Fletcher (who is either not good enough or is still not ready), and easy wins will be turned into struggling ones, and struggling victories into draws/losses. Sorry, i know Bellion scored and did well by his standards, but he is not a footballer. Before you argue, just look at his ball control - definitely not a footballer's. As for Miller, all those who called me 'stupid and an instant grat fan', i 'm sorry but Miller is not going to be our saviour this season (did you see when he handled the ball under no pressure at all - shocking). Even if they improve, Miller & Bellion are not the level of players to restore United's domestic and european superiority. Be man enough and face up to it.

I was right again, it was as I said after the Chelsea match, player's weren't fully fit, and it was the first match.

The youngster also needs time to get into the side, and it seems like Keane, Scholes, Neville & Giggs know how to share the responsibility with the youngsters, at the same time I feel we can performe much better. I felt Bellion got lost in his self-confidence in the second half, it seemed like he thought he was 28 years and one of the best ones out there. Although he performed wuite well this match, he shouldn't think anything, he should learn to know his ability, not imagine his ability as it is.

I also feel we should leave this behind us, although we won with a lot of possession, we did meet Norwich, they are an ok side, but they aren't the GREATEST. So next match we should play with respect towards our opponent, but at the same time, we should experiment with the players.

Unfortunate thing this week: Fortune is gone for some time, he might be an important player in the future matches, because he has got the ability to take responsibility and his experience is an important factor for "The Lads Of 2003".

A bit of a stutter but in the end a job well done. The jury will still be out on players like Thierry Bellion, Liam Miller and EDD but I think that the main thing is to start racking up the points. We need them on the board - we're not going to perform the sublime way that we used to or the arse are now. You can feel the nervousness in the crowd - especially when Norwich scored. Well done to Alan Smith - tenacity and skill...great goal. Lets have the regulars back asap then we can moan if performance is poor. Keep it up and stay in touch with whoever is top of the league FFS. Thank Eric it's Sunday - time for some de-tox. Where's me water???

Where are you now, members of the anti Alan Smith brigade? The goal against Norwich was nothing less than brilliant, and his attitude is a valuable injection on a team. Both DD and Bellion showed improvement that gives hope for them to become valuable squadmembers. Miller has showed glimpses ofhis potential, but seems a bit lost out at the right. The biggest dissapointment has to be Paul Scholes, who seems uninspired at the moment. But again; SAF is playing Scholes out of position as he's been doing with Keane, O'Shea and Miller. With Heinze to arrive, Rio back from suspension and Brown back from injury, there will be no need to use Keane at the back and O'Shea in midfield. With Ronaldo and Fletcher (forbid he'll be used on the right, tough) back there'll be no more need to use Miller on the right and O'Shea in the middle. Give Bellion a run on the right, if Ronaldo isn't fit! With Saha to return in a week or two and RvN a week or two later, there'll be no need to huzzle and fuzzle with Scholes and Giggs as strikers. All to become well then, in a couple of weeks? Maybe, but bringing in a creative midfielder, preferably versatile enough to be able to play both on the left flank and in the middle, wouldn't hurt!

Not a bad performance but I still miss that quick, free-flowing, all out attacking play that is our trademark. Some plus points though, DD looked solid in the holding role in midfield, at times Miller looked like a mini Keane and Smith was Man of the Match (not sure he could play with RVN though -too similar.)The minus points are that this was only Norwich, the defence looked shaky at times and although I hate to say it JOS is too slow to be a premiership class defender. The biggest minus point however, despite his goal, is Bellion, what an embarrassment he is. People around me in the East stand were laughing at him. What does Fergie see in him that isnt obvious to the rest of us. Somebody should put their arm around him and gently tell him to go and take up welding or plumbing because he certainly is not a footballer.

I agree totally with you.we really need a top class winger to rotate between Giggsy, Ronaldo and ??????.Please Fergie do it.We should think as well getting Rooney and a quality right back in the near future(January or in the summer).We could then send Bellion and Richardson on loan and get rid of Phil Neville.

What a great way to start off the winning. Smithy was excellent and his goal was better. I can't wait until United get back to full strength to show Kenyon, Abramovich and Mourinho that talent is more abundant than money at Old Trafford. Drogba for B#24m is a joke. he can't score against a united defence missing key players or Birmingham who have Heskey!

Have you ever thought what United could be like if we played a 3-5-2 formation? Personally I love it. Our centre-backs are, when Rio comes back, good enough, and I think I would cream my pants if we were able to play five midfielders AND two strikers.

A better team would have destroyed us in the last 25 minutes. We really need to tighten up and the back, we don't want to keep having to rely on Keane to clear up in the box or we'll be in trouble. Anyway, good performance from Smith. How about giving Rossi a game up front with smith against one of the lower quality sides... like Manchester City for example. The only happiness the light-blues get is when we lose, but yet they don't get much success themselves do they?

Dont care where or how the points come as long as they come. No point in over analysing because we all know that when we have a full squad to chose from, our first eleven will be nothing like this. Good to see Ronaldo back and also good to see the likes of DD and Miller get another run. DD does indeed appear to be finding his feet but Miller will need a little longer to adjust bearing in mind he has missed much of the last two seasons with injury. I think we will be extremely difficult to beat when we have our first eleven out. I was left with only one concern. Dont know how others feel but I thought that Howard could have done a lot better with the goal, as with last week. He needs to reclaim last years form and quickly.

No doubt there will be fans who will come on this site and complain how poor we were and how our season's over because we had a scary last 10 minutes. I think our players tired towards the end, which is simply a reflection of the disrupted pre-season, but they're getting there. I'm with Paul from Sale in calling on all those anti-Smith fans to come on here and admit they were wrong. There were also positive signs from Giggs, Djemba-Djemba, JOS & Miller IMO.

pretty good game despite the average defense..DB certainly looks promising..and boy what a goal from Smithy..whoa!! well done lads..good to see CR back , overall good performance even Dxs did good..bring on the next game ..champs league here we come(slowly but steady) ;)

gloryx2 united

Oh Dear. First the positives. Great goal by Smith. and Bellion's goal was the type of fast attacking play that we are used to. DD was neat and tidy in midfield. The downsides were how poor Paul Scholes was - he's proved yet again that being messed around in his position doesn't suit him. SAF must realise that he is an attacking midfield player and not a deep lying forward. There may not be much difference in theory but it seems to make a big difference to Scholes who was never in the game and when he did touch the ball his touch was poor which is so unlike him. Our attacking play was again ponderous and Giggs wasted some good positions and seemed to go missing for much of the game although I know he was involved in both goals. The biggest problem yet again was that Norwich thought they'd got some hope of snatching at least one point. For the first half and hour I thought our chances of scoring were slim and that if Norwich scored we would be in real trouble (and Bentley nearly did). Fortunately we then had a period of much better play when we scored wither side of half time and could have had more but we didn't and Norwich scored. It was then backs to the wall and it looked as if there was every chance that Norwich could get another until Ronaldo came on and secured the game for us. Overall I think we were lucky to get away with this result.

Well all the fuss about Strikers!
Where are all our dominating
midfield men ?? cant see any
and we cant afford to wait
for so called promising ones..If
we are not carefull the season
will be over!! We need another
young Keane,and i am amazed
nothing has been done. The
first signing should have been
Ballack ?? money no object !!!
others do it. We are Scrooge,s