Behind enemy lines

It was a day of firsts. The first time I wore smart trousers and a shirt to a football match. The first time I drank so much alcohol so early in the morning. The first time I ate a substantial and tasty four-course meal before kick off. The first time I experienced hospitality as a VIP 'behind enemy lines' at Old Trafford.

Prawn sandwiches 'n' all.

After baulking at the ludicrous price of hospitality at Anfield, my dad managed to acquire two free tickets to be wined and dined as a VIP at Manchester United vs. Liverpool from my generous and helpful next-door neighbour. We gratefully snapped them up and travelled north early Saturday morning, reaching Manchester at 10:00 am.

For just under three hours we enjoyed exquisite food and good company, even from the United fans on our table, who remarkably identified me as a Red minutes after arriving thanks to the Hillsborough wristband I was wearing. The conversation was amicable and the banter good-natured, nevertheless, and at 12:45 pm all eyes were on the football.

Well, they were supposed to be at least.

In reality, though, everybody was focused on the pre-match handshake that the FA had unwisely refused to scrap. Except me, that is, because, sat on the other side of the stadium, I didn't witness the debacle that occurred. After watching the incident again, though, it is clear that the media have painted a story hugely different to the reality. This is Anfield explains what actually happened here.

For me, Evra was equally to blame for the handshake incident, if not more culpable. Replays made it patently clear that he withdrew his hand as Suarez offered his, and then grabbed the Uruguayan’s hand to supposedly make a point. Cynically, you could claim that the Frenchman set up the incident to make Suarez appear even more of a racist. Personally, I believe that, understandably, neither of them wanted to shake the other's hand.

One thing's for sure, Evra is nowhere near as innocent as the media have portrayed him to be and Suarez certainly doesn't deserve the widespread and hypocritical condemnation he has received from the media and Manchester United alike.

Ironically, when the football finally began, Evra, Suarez and Ferdinand (who refused to shake Suarez's hand) were all involved in a collision, which nearly left Ferdinand injured as he fell awkwardly. Suarez came out best from that contest and appeared to be through on goal but unfortunately the move fizzled out and the chance had gone.

Nonetheless, Liverpool started the match the brighter and had their best opportunity of the match 10 minutes in. A brilliant, free-flowing move from the visitors culminated in Suarez feeding Johnson and the marauding right back cutting inside and shaping to shoot left footed inches wide of De Gea's goal.

Unfortunately, United then came back into the match and claimed the ascendancy. Welbeck got a faint touch on Rafael's shot but Reina managed to make a save, before Rooney dragged a shot wide after Agger had been sloppy in possession. Fine play from the hosts on the half hour mark crafted a gilt-edged goalscoring opportunity for Paul Scholes.

The 37-year old, who recently returned from retirement to help United endure their injury crisis, picked out fellow golden oldie Ryan Giggs on the left wing. The Welsh winger's subsequent cross found Scholes in the box and United's number 22 drew an impressive and instinctive stop from Reina with a free header.

The Reds replied shortly before the interval, Skrtel volleying just over the bar from a corner kick. On the stroke of half time, an encouraging counter-attack saw Suarez glide past Evra like he wasn't there before streaming through on goal. Only a last ditch challenge from Ferdinand stopped him heading in one-on-one with De Gea.

Suarez complained bitterly at referee Phil Dowd for not awarding a free kick and potentially sending Ferdinand off, and expressed this frustration by foolishly booting the ball at the dugout when the whistle went for half time. TV replays later showed that the England defender had made a fair challenge, however that was irrelevant as the players went in squabbling at half time, arguing vociferously in the tunnel.

As a result, United appeared fired up when they came out for the second half. They consequently netted two goals in five minutes, severely hampering the Reds' chances of taking any points back to Merseyside with them. First, Giggs' corner ws flicked on by Henderson and volleyed home by Wayne Rooney. Then, Spearing fatally lost possession to Welbeck, who put Rooney through and saw the former Evertonian delight the Toffees by sliding the ball beyond Reina and doubling the Reds' misery.

United's number 10, who had been comically labelled the 'scouser in the wig' by the travelling Kop, almost sealed a hattrick when he went through on goal on the hour mark. Thankfully, his snapshot was off target and the Reds' blushes were temporarily spared.

Dalglish then made two much needed substitutions. Carroll replaced Spearing, who had performed adequately apart from his error for United's second, and Bellamy replaced the shocking Stewart Downing, who did little to justify the £20 million spent to secure his signature in the summer.

Bellamy tried to inject some pace into Liverpool's play and Carroll put himself about up front, but it wasn't until Dalglish had made another sub that the away side really stood a chance of getting back into the contest. Adam replaced Kuyt and five minutes later Luis Suarez prodded home after Ferdinand had failed to deal with Adam's free kick.

The eerie silence at Old Trafford was hilarious and I struggled to constrain my celebrations in amongst the Mancs.

In injury time, Liverpool pushed for a leveller they probably didn't deserve. Johnson's superb strike from the edge of the box drew a world-class save from De Gea and Suarez headed over when ideally placed to equalise, however he was offside anyway and, as a result, United collected all three points.

What Patrice Evra did after the match was inexcusable. He ran to the away fans and incited them, in a similar fashion to Gary Neville in years gone by, before celebrating provocatively and idiotically in front of Suarez, who sensibly ignored him and walked promptly down the tunnel.

It was outrageous and utterly disgraceful behaviour from Evra, yet it has been widely overlooked by the media, or worse, justified as a supposedly legitimate response to alleged racism from Suarez.

To be fair, both Suarez and Evra acted like petulant school boys yesterday and their behaviour tarnished what was an otherwise entertaining encounter. Liverpool performed below their best and perhaps didn't deserve a point, but the overall match was still relatively enjoyable.

Suarez has today come out and apologised for refusing to shake Evra's hand, however there was little else he could do. It will be interesting to see whether Evra apologises now, although I expect he won't. I also suspect the FA, seemingly conducting a witch hunt on Suarez, will charge him with some offence yet fail to likewise charge Evra who, if anything, deserves more punishment for his completely unacceptable and childish behaviour.

Overall, for me it was an enjoyable day with the prawn sandwich brigade at Old Trafford. It is just a shame that the whole Suarez-Evra saga has reared its ugly head again.

Let's hope it is finally put to bed as soon as possible.

YNWA