Last night, Reading gave Manchester United a good contest and managed to keep United at bay for 75 minutes. But then, the inevitable happened and United went ahead. Ronaldo also scored in the stoppage time, ensuring another victory for the Red Devils and maintaining their top spot.

There were two major changes for United in their starting line-up.Hargreaves returned in midfield in place of Anderson, while park replaced Giggs on the left wing. Steve Coppell opted to have a go at United, and Reading had all three of their main strikers, Doyle,Kitson and Lita, in the team.

Coppell's strategy appeared to have succeeded when the first real goal scoring chance went to Kitson but Vidic kept him from scoring.United dominated the next 30 minutes but their finishing let them down and Hahnemann made a stunning save from a Hargreaves free-kick which looked destined for the top-corner. After that, Reading came back into the game and Kitson again had an excellent oppurtunity to score. With Van Der Sar off his line, he unleashed a great shot from range but the back-tracking Ferdinand cleared the danger to save his keeper's blushes.

In the second half, United re-discovered their rhythm, and Reading were forced to play a counter-attacking game. But the Reading defence stood strong and it seemed only a moment of brilliance will break the dead-lock. That moment duly arrived 15 minutes from time. Tevez chipped in an excellent ball into the penalty area which Rooney guided into the net through a deft touch. But there was a nervous finish for United as reading chased an equaliser. James Harper came agonisingly close to scoring, but it proved to be the last chance for Reading to rescue something from the game as Ronaldo scored in the stoppage time to finish a swift counter-attack to ensure 3 points for United.

In my view, most of the credit for the victory should go to the United defence. They managed to thwart all of the Reading's attacks, keeping yet another clean-sheet. Carrick and Hargreaves were quite good but Park looked distinctly average. Rooney managed to score at last, and hopefully, he will go on a scoring run again. Ronaldo looked off-colour as all of his 7 shots were prior to the goal were off-target. But he has taken his seasons tally to 23 goals already and no-one can blame him. United's finishing was poor too, which might persuade Sir Alex to buy another striker in January or in the summer.

After the match Sir Alex said:
"We had a number of chances in last third but we started to worry that we weren't going to get the goal."
"Credit to Reading who never stopped working and really made us work."
"It was a really open match. Our own attacking play wasn't at its best and more care was needed up front. We scored at the right time and held on."

To sum it up, it was a great win for United as Reading are a bit of a bogey team for them and they appear to be on course to retain the title. Now the team heads to Saudi Arabia to play a friendly. The wisdom of such a trip is disputed, and I do hope that there are no injuries to any of our key players during the tour.

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