Barney Corkhill's Unofficial World Club Championship (UWCC) saw another defence yesterday as champions Manchester United took on Newcastle at St. James' Park.
Manchester United were looking to continue their fantastic run of form, which had seen them win 10 league games in a row, in order to battle for the "quintuple."
The Carling Cup success on Sunday meant that two trophies were in the bag, and a win at St. James' would put them seven points clear at the top of the Premiership.
Newcastle, on the other hand, were still under the temporary management of Chris Hughton, while Joe Kinnear recovered from his heart-bypass operation. They hadn't won since Hughton's first game in charge early in February.
True to the form book, it was Manchester United who got the three points.
It wasn't all plain sailing, however, as Newcastle's Peter Lovenkrands opening the scoring following a very rare error from Edwin Van Der Sar. The goal was the first the Dutch keeper had conceded for 1,311 minutes in Premier League matches.
It wasn't long before normal service was resumed, however, as Wayne Rooney levelled the sides just 11 minutes later. It was by no means another dominant performance by the Carling Cup champions, however, with Newcastle testing their defence on a number of occasions.
Yet it was Newcastle who nearly went into the break a goal down, after Nemanja Vidic somehow missed from point-blank range.
The second half proved to be just as even as the first, with both goalkeepers being forced to make important saves. However, it was a mistake by Ryan Taylor that ultimately lead to United's winning goal.
As Taylor tried to chest the ball back to Steve Harper, Park Ji-Sung nipped in, giving the ball to Dimitar Berbatov who finished with typical ease.
The match was United's sixth defence of the title, leaving them just one behind Chelsea's seven and three behind Fulham's record amount of nine defences. Despite this, they have already won more points than any other team in UWCC history, with 17.
87.5 percent of voters in the poll said that Manchester United would beat Newcastle, so well done to the vast majority!
Manchester United's run
West Ham 0-1 Manchester United (Manchester United become new champions)
Derby County 1-4 Manchester United
Manchester United 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
Inter Milan 0-0 Manchester United
Manchester United 0-0 Tottenham (Manchester United win 4-1 on penalties)
Newcastle 1-2 Manchester United
(Click here to see the complete history of Barney Corkhill's Unofficial World Club Championship)
Manchester United's next title defence comes on Saturday as they face former champions Fulham in Round Six of the FA Cup. Could Fulham become the first ever two-time UWCC champions?!
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