Fulham ... 1 Manchester United ... 1 Forget what your mother told you. Cheats - or at least experts in the art of gamesmanship - do prosper. And some make a habit of it.
Old Trafford, November 17th, 2001. Leicester City are awarded a penalty, Fabien Barthez delays it for a quite improbable length of time and eventually saves from Muzzy Izzet. It was agreed at the time that this was unsavoury, but no action was taken. On Saturday, he did it again.
In the 71st minute Fulham launched a quick break, starting with Facundo Sava, working the ball through Steve Marlet and the excellent Sean Davis, who played Marlet clear on goal. Manchester United's veteran defender Laurent Blanc cynically blocked his path, preventing him from reaching the ball. Although the offence took place outside the area the referee, Mike Dean, awarded a penalty. Start the clock.
Blanc was booked, itself a ridiculous decision once the referee had decided that he had denied Fulham a clear goalscoring opportunity. Barthez walked to his left-hand post and banged his boots against it, cleaning out some imaginary mud. He then strolled to his right-hand post and leaned against it, thinking perhaps whether he should grow a ponytail like David Seaman's. Gary Neville got into an argument with Marlet on the edge of the area, and the referee intervened. Without turning back to goal, he blew the whistle. Nothing happened.
Steed Malbranque was waiting to take the kick; Barthez was still leaning against his post. By this time, some people would actually have grown a ponytail like Seaman's. The crowd were screaming for Malbranque to score into the empty net, his team-mates behind him were shouting: "kick it!". He did not. Dean turned round, and promptly booked Barthez for time-wasting. He blew his whistle again. Malbranque shot low to his right, Barthez made the save. Stop the clock. Ninety-one seconds. Not a ridiculous length of time but long enough to destroy Malbranque's confidence.
Dean later admitted that had Malbranque scored with Barthez by his post the goal would have been disallowed, as Izzet's similar effort last year had been by Andy D'Urso. Both referees were wrong: so long as the goalkeeper is on his goal line, between his goalposts and facing the kicker, the penalty should continue. And Barthez certainly deserves the humiliation it would have brought.
Instead the Frenchman was the hero, having not only saved the penalty but three times denying Sava, who however, did play a part in Fulham's goal, holding the ball up well before it was worked to Rufus Brevett, Mickael Silvestre then hitting the resulting cross into Marlet and in.
United equalised when the otherwise excellent Zat Knight collided with Abdes Ouaddou to allow Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to rifle the ball past Edwin van der Sar from an acute angle.
FULHAM: Van der Sar, Ouaddou, Knight, Goma, Brevett, Legwinski, Davis, Finnan, Malbranque, Marlet, Sava (Hayles 78). Subs Not Used: Inamoto, Collins, Boa Morte, Taylor. Booked: Marlet. Goals: Marlet 35.
MANCHESTER UTD: Barthez, Gary Neville, O'Shea, Blanc, Silvestre (Forlan 80), Beckham, Veron, Phil Neville (Fortune 59), Giggs, Scholes, Solskjaer. Subs Not Used: May, Richardson, Ricardo. Booked: Blanc, Barthez, Beckham. Goals: Solskjaer 62.
Referee: M Dean (Wirral).
