“LET'S ALL LAUGH AT ROONEY”
“There's only one Harold Shipman, let's give thanks cos he only kills Mancs…”
“Let's all laugh at Rooney”
“Who the fuck are Man Utd” (ad nauseum)
+ their usual varied sectarian bile.
It's to be hoped we play these imbeciles in a proper match before too long, when no doubt they'll be assured the same reception which greeted their fellow Glaswegian fuckwits from Ibrox, and the charade that there's any sort of “friendship” will be well and truly and thankfully smashed.
Meanwhile, well done to GMP who showed tremendous restraint in failing to make arrests in face of the multitude of drunk and disorderly, ticket-selling, urinating-in-public visiting hordes. All hardly capital offences we'd readily agree, but then that's not stopped our local constabulary nicking many a United fan for similar this season. RI is quite sure however, that this lack of action last night had nothing to do with the fact that they'd much rather arrest Reds to add to their pre-World Cup banning order figures than buffoons from Scotland.
And if anyone's interested, a match report from the Guardian:
Roy Keane may always harbour a smouldering grievance about the manner in which he left Manchester United but even for this notorious grudge-bearer, a man defiantly free of sentimentality, his testimonial night should supply him with a lifetime of happy memories.
Ruud van Nistelrooy may have sent his apologies but a crowd of just under 70,000 squeezed into Old Trafford to pay tribute to the United, Celtic and Republic of Ireland legend, with Keane playing 45 minutes for each side and, appropriately, ending up on the winning team courtesy of Cristiano Ronaldo's decisive goal.
There were no staged photo-calls shaking hands with Sir Alex Ferguson and, privately, Keane is understood to sympathise with Van Nistelrooy about his rancorous feud with the United manager, but this was an occasion when the acrimony was temporarily put aside.
Keane received a hero's welcome and surprised everyone, perhaps even himself, by taking the microphone in the centre circle afterwards for an emotional farewell speech. "I'd like to thank everyone who has turned up. I hope you all had a great night," he said, with his wife Theresa shedding a few tears in the stand. "It's something I will remember for the rest of my life."
He is 35 this summer and it is the age when even the greatest footballers start to get racked by insecurity. Keane is harder on himself than anyone and, an unhappy commuter, he made it clear here that he might retire. "I'll be giving it a lot of thought in the next few days and I'm sure I will make the right decision," he said after a night which has swelled his bank balance by £3m, with a significant through unspecified proportion to go to charity.
It had been six months since he last walked out at Old Trafford and when he emerged here it was to a guard of honour from both sets of players. With a thin smile he managed to combine looking proud and moved with being uncomfortable and fidgety.
United's supporters will be bewildered by Ferguson's attempts to airbrush his argument with Keane out of the club's history. "A lot of idle chatter," he wrote, in the souvenir programme, of the revelations that accompanied Keane's exit.
"It was not an easy parting for either of us," he continued, "but it takes nothing away from a fantastic association I enjoyed as his manager for 12 years. He was one of this club's great captains and I didn't describe him as the heartbeat of Manchester United for nothing. His will to win makes me proud to be associated with him."
Ferguson would clearly rather remember the good days rather than the mudslinging and finger-pointing and, having laid a few ghosts to rest, Keane may now be on the same wavelength. He will never forget what happened last November, when he departed without so much as a goodbye, but he knows now that his old club will always roll out the red carpet for him.
Manchester Utd (4-4-1-1): Howard; Piqué, Vidic, Brown, Evra; Ronaldo, Ferdinand, Giggs, Richardson; Rossi; Saha.
Subs: Keane, Neville, Scholes, Van der Sar, Solskjaer, O'Shea, Silvestre, Campbell, Lee.
Referee: M Halsey.
Celtic (4-4-2): Boruc; Telfer, Varga, McManus, Wilson; Petrov, Keane, Lennon, Maloney; Zurawski, Hartson.
Subs: Camara, Virgo, Thompson, Dublin, Pearson, Marshall, Wallace, Lawson, Quinn, Mulgrew