Not a Good Day for Farah as Manchester United and Gillingham Throw it Away

As you all know, football can either give you a massive high, or a massive low.

Today's the day of the massive low, as Manchester United succumbed to a Liverpool team who now have eight goals in two games - against both United and Real Madrid.

A double whammy then ensued, as a Curtis Weston wonderstrike and a well-worked Nicky Southall goal were both cancelled out, by a penalty that never was, and comical defending.

Yes Manchester United spectacularly lost 4-1 to Premier League title rivals Liverpool at Old Trafford, and the not-so mighty Gillingham unspectacularly "lost" 2-2 at home to Shrewsbury Town.

For the latter I say "lost" because that is what it felt like for the just under 6,000 Gills fans inside the stadium. We were in cruise control for over 75 minutes, and much wanted and needed revenge looked certain to be on the cards.

However, in the 77th minute referee Mr. Penton (I forget his first name) made a catastrophic error for the home side.

Shrews' striker Moses Ashikodi was through on goal before Barry Fuller expertly dealt with the threat. That's what happened, but the referee had other ideas, saying Ashikodi was nudged off the ball.

So in other words ref, you're saying that football should be a non-contact sport, and if strength prevails inside the box then it has to be a penalty?

Now before we go any further, I'm not saying to the referee: "You don't know what you're doing!"as Gillingham's version of the Kop says. It's just that in this one case the referee made completely the wrong decision; other than that he had a very decent game.

The penalty was put away after many expletives from the Rainham End (Gillingham's Kop End) were given to the visitors' spot-kick taker Ben Davies, with Shrewsbury suddenly finding themselves back in with a chance.

In added time I heard a metaphorical bullet, as Gillingham shot themselves in the foot to gift the unworthy visitors a much dreaded equaliser.

Gills' centre-back Garry Richards had him, then he didn't, then he did, and then he didn't again. Keeper Simon Royce moves to come out, then goes back, then comes out again, then moves back, and it's a goal.

Such uncertain stupidity from these lowly men in blue - who complain they should be in a league higher - is clear as they show off some amateur defending by allowing Shrewsbury striker, and League Two top scorer, Grant Holt to be unmarked and roll home a very, very easy equaliser.

My article on here about the Carling Cup final (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/132296-carling-cup-final-slumdog-in-with-the-millionaires-at-wembley) was featured in the Gills' matchday programme, but the delight of that wasn't enough to prevent me from slamming the poor thing right into the ground at the sound of that final whistle.

Gillingham threw it away and effectively "lost" 2-2; every Gills fan inside that ground felt like a slumdog at the final whsitle.

To make matters worse, Part Two of my double whammy of football misery came when I got home and turned on my favourite TV channel, Sky Sports News.

Jeff Stelling confirmed to me that the second greatest team in the world (after Gillingham of course) lost 4-1 to Liverpool.

I have loved Manchester United for years and I always go up to Old Trafford to see them play at least twice a season.

If I can barely cope with a 2-2 "defeat" four levels down the English football hierarchy in League Two, how on earth will I manage to cope with Manchester United conceding four goals and having star man Nemanja Vidic sent off?

United may still be well clear in the EPL title hunt, but the real agony comes from school, table tennis club, here on B/R, my friends, etc. One thing is for definite, Liverpool fans are like the plague. Enough said on that one.

I would describe my agony from the United game, but this article would be never-ending in that case. So I think I will just stick with focusing on uncertain stupidity as opposed to spectacular defeats.

Using my favourite cliché, if one thing is for certain... it's that BBC's Match of the Day and ITV's The Championship highlights will be a very, very certain no-go this weekend.