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Teen sub rescues Reds after Toffees expose flaws

- ■ by DAVID McDONNELL

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To whu blob so whu are a shambles and a great club in same txt. Biggest frauds in football west ham. Chuck out Bobby Moore didnt want to know him when alive. But B M night stand statue when dead. Tevez cheating 5m fine Sheff Utd payment 25m. Moving 1.5 miles from Orient. Racist anti semetic fans. Taking millions from taxpayer. Useless on the pitch no ambition achieving nothing. Bias stupid fans you lemons wont touch my history txts. CFC1

ME & MY OWNER CARPARK JEFF LUV HOW VAR IS HELPING US WIN DA PREM. FOUL MEANS AND CHEATING IS GUD 4 US. HA HAA U LOSERS. YNWA.

RAFA DA DOG

What a superb Xmas drink with the Baggies fans after Saturday’s derby. A great time was had by all. Have to get down and have a pint with the Coventry fans now!

KINGSTANDI­NG BLUES

A good, if lucky win against Blues. A great atmosphere after the game, having a drink with the Blues fans and cheering the Sheff Utd goals! BAGGIE

After promotion, Sheff Utd got everything right, Villa got everything wrong. Smith is out of his depth £150m flops! V.LION

Oy Snivelling Cardiff Nobodies – So you think it’s Funny to Bust your Guts trying to Beat Leeds eh? We’ll have a good Laugh at your Expense at your Poor excuse of a City. Fatty Tomlin can’t usually hit a Barn Door!? YRA LUFC

Well done the Cherries beating Chelski as we did the other week in their own dump of a ground. I bet the Village Idiot is crying into his laptop.

FLOYD the Hammer

Re trev all you plastic city /mackems and sand dancers going on about cheating and av gates. 1st of all francis lee invented diving and bet yous dont even know who he is and when you come to av gates newcastle have not won anything since 1969 and apart from utd they have been best supported team in the last 20/30 years. and now city cant win league you will see empythad fans show true colours. even when man utd and newcastle were in division 2 still had highest agg Crowd so go back and crawl back into ur shell plastics and a happy new year to all fans whoever you may be. UWS

on the right track. We’ve taken a few steps forward. Today is not a big step backwards, it’s more of a standstill, not improving.

“It’s a work in progress. These young boys are learning. We as a team and a group are going forward.”

It was fitting in the 4,000th consecutiv­e game United have picked a home-grown player in their matchday squad that teenager Mason Greenwood should rescue a draw for them.

Greenwood cancelled out Victor Lindelof’s own goal, which Solskjaer felt should have been disallowed for a foul by Dominic Calvert-Lewin on David De Gea.

“It’s just so natural for him,” he said. “He knows what to do. If you open your legs, he shoots through them and if you close them, he bends it round you.

“Too many chances are missed in general because strikers rush the finish but the best have that extra halfsecond, and he does.

“It’s fitting that it should be an academy player who scores in the 4,000th match and it makes it hard for me to leave him out.”

Everton’s caretaker boss Duncan Ferguson has dismissed his chances of landing the job full-time despite his fine start. The draw at Old Trafford follows his win over Chelsea. But he says his role is to give the club breathing space.

Ferguson, who took off his jacket when it got wet despite the cold, said: “It’s going to buy them a bit of time to get the right man in.

“They can make the process more diligent and find the right guy.”

Ferguson says that he will speak to Moise Kean after the striker reacted angrily when he took him off just 19 minutes after bringing him on.

THIS WAS another case of Groundhog Day for Manchester United. Good against the Premier League’s leading lights, suspect against the supporting cast.

But as United celebrated 4,000 consecutiv­e games with an academy player in their match-day squad, it was fitting that teenage prodigy Mason Greenwood stepped up to rescue them.

The striker, 18, has been at United since he was six-years-old and scored his second goal in four days and seventh of the season to salvage a point.

But after big wins over Tottenham and Manchester City to kickstart their season this was another familiar case of United against a team they were expected to overcome.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have taken 13 points against the top five this season but just 12 against teams beneath them in their other 12 games.

That suggests a team with no problem motivating themselves for the big occasion but an inherent inability to raise their game when the opposition is not so stellar.

Solskjaer identified that problem in the wake of United’s stunning win at champions and local rivals City, acknowledg­ing there was an issue below them.

Yet it was the same story here, United failing to find the fluency they did against Spurs and City against a dogged Everton side who were fully deserving of their point.

Caretaker boss Duncan Ferguson has now led Everton to victory over Chelsea and earned a point at Old Trafford, a ground where the Toffees have struggled, winning just twice in the past 27 years.

Ferguson may not be among the front-runners for the Toffees job on a permanent basis but the 47-year-old is making it hard for the Goodison Park hierarchy to ignore his candidacy.

Everton played with a resilience and robustness here that was absent under former boss Marco Silva, with Ferguson having instilled in them the passion and bite he possessed as a player.

They may have been unable to hold on to the lead they took when Victor Lindelof turned the ball into his own net in the to address (left) (above) appeared to be fouled against teams first half but this was another step forward for them.

That this point was earned without injured duo Morgan Schneiderl­in and Theo Walcott and Gylfi Sigurdsson and Djibril Sidibe, both ill, made it all the more impressive.

The goal, which came in the 36th minute, was fortuitous, with David De Gea appearing to be fouled by Dominic Calvert-Lewin as he came for a corner from Leighton Baines.

But De Gea was not committed enough in coming for the ball, turning away as he prodded an aimless punch, the ball then bouncing off Lindelof and into his own net.

United were unable to get back on level terms before the break but went close through Luke Shaw, who saw a shot saved by Jordan Pickford.

Lingard made way for Greenwood in the 65th minute and it proved an inspired switch from Solskjaer, with the latter claiming the all-important equaliser 12 minutes later.

James cut inside from the left and funnelled the ball to Greenwood, who shuffled the ball on to his left foot before steering a clinical low finish beyond the reach of Pickford.

At that stage the momentum was with United, their fans expecting a familiar late flourish and a winner, but it never came.

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FERGIE TIME: Everton boss Ferguson marks his side’s opener
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SELF HARM: Lindelof scores an own goal after keeper De Gea
■ FERGIE TIME: Everton boss Ferguson marks his side’s opener ■ SELF HARM: Lindelof scores an own goal after keeper De Gea

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