Will be doing a match report for my blog at some point this evening but, briefly:
Sluggish start from United, they scored first, poor marking at a corner, somehow allowed the shortest guy on the pitch to loop a header over Zieler. Think Welbeck might have been at fault but it was hard to tell. That was after about 17 minutes.
3/4 minutes later, Macheda played Fábio in down the left and he just nicked the ball away from the covering defender before being taken out, definite penalty. Unfortunately he put it wide of the right-hand post.
Made up for it a few minutes later, Rodrigo hammered a volley from the edge of the area after a corner was half-cleared and the keeper made a very good save, unfortunately for him Fábio was waiting to knock home the rebound.
Much better from United at this point, Rochdale were occasionally threatening - they had a first-team striker coming back from injury and another guy who I think is a usual first-teamer who was your classic lower-league battering ram. Zieler was never really troubled though, and generally we were passing them to death and looked a lot sharper.
Then came the highlight of the game, Fábio's second goal. Great cross-field ball to him from Rodrigo, Fábio played it up the line to Macheda, carried on his run, Kiko pulled it back to him on the edge of the area and without breaking stride he caught it on the volley and gave the keeper no chance. Was almost a scissor-kick, bit di Canio-esque, wonderful strike, great build-up. Applauded by everyone in the crowd, which was mostly Rochdale fans.
After half-time it really was one-way traffic. Fábio completed his hattrick a few minutes after the interval - Eikrem's corner was flicked on by Gill and while the sub keeper for Rochdale pulled off a great save from the little Brazilian's initial header, he couldn't stop him volleying in the rebound from a tight angle.
From that point on everyone wanted in on the action really. Welbeck forced a save, Eikrem volleyed wide when clean through, Macheda had a shot blocked after a great move and Welbeck probably should have had a penalty, although he spurned the chance of an easy pull-back to Fábio and could have avoided putting things in the ref's hands.
Nonetheless, just before the hour mark he ran onto Evans' excellent throughball and gave the keeper the eyes, coolly rolling it past him for 4-1.
We were pretty much queueing up to score at this point - Macheda and Evans (twice) went close from distance, Welbeck went close with another effort from the edge of the box, Evans forced a great save after another one-two with Welbeck. The football was excellent and more goals should really have been added, not least in the last five minutes when Stewart miskicked from 10 yards out and then Drinkwater put the loose ball over from six yards. Rochdale had a couple of late chances but were similarly wasteful, and the ref put them out of their misery dead on the 90 minute mark.
After a shaky first twenty minutes it really was an excellent performance, the gulf in class really evident. Evans and Eckersley were superb at the back, Evans especially considering he was up against robust and experienced opposition - Gill did well too. Fábio was obviously brilliant, it really is a matter of when rather than if he breaks into the first team. Possebon and Eikrem did well in midfield, Macheda was superb after a rusty first half-hour and was all over the park while Welbeck perhaps wasn't at his absolute best but showed his obvious class.
1. Zieler
2. Eckersley
3. Fábio (15. Brady 60)
4. Evans (c)
5. Gill
6. Possebon (14. Drinkwater 46)
7. Eikrem
8. Bryan (16. Stewart 68)
9. Macheda
10. Welbeck
11. Derbyshire
Not used: 12. James, 13. Amos.
Goals: Fábio 26, 41, 48, Welbeck 58.
thanks for the report. Dying to see the volley. Did MUTV even have cameras there?