Owing to having young children, and then the torrid times of Covid-19, I haven’t been to a live football match in a long time, but Man Utd v Leicester City at Old Trafford was a day to remember for me, yesterday, on Saturday 2 April 2022.
I was meeting up with fellow web developers Zeshan Ahmed and Josh Morley to celebrate Zeshan’s visit to the UK – I wanted to showcase some of the best hospitality in the North West of England!
Have you even wondered what is the meaning of TBH on Instagram?
Zeshan chose his favourite club Man Utd, and we were hoping to see Ronaldo. Sadly, we missed the chance to watch the Man Utd v Spurs match where he scored a match-winning Hat-Trick… but that’s football 🙂
The Matchday VIP Experience is hosted by Lancashire Cricket Club and we shared a table with a group of other businessmen from a very unrelated field. For the match, we were seated in the 1968 Club Executive zone and Zeshan was treated to a true fan’s welcome as a result of his newly purchased Ronaldo scarf on our way in, through the Munich tunnel past the Stretford End.
Match Report – Man Utd v Leicester City
The football itself was slightly underwhelming, as Ronaldo and Cavani were both out of action, and therefore United were a little short of incisive options up-top. They only really got going towards the end of the second half, after Leicester nicked a goal on the counter, following a good tackle on the outrushing Fred… kind of a counter-counter-attack, which is how Leicester get you.
As a keeper, I won’t criticize David De Gea nor Kasper Schmeichel, but they will both be disappointed to get a hand to something which ended up in the back of the net – De Gea couldn’t quite keep out the opening header which bounced awkwardly from Iheanacho, whereas a couple of minutes later Schmeichel parried the ball directly to Fred, who lashed home.
We won’t talk about Bruno… beyond my legendary and likely very hackneyed Encanto reference, we shall suffice it to say both of Fernandes’ shots were saved; though it redeems him a little that one of those was the one Fred banged home.
The resulting 1-1 scoreline was probably just about fair, because while United had a clear-cut chance in both halves, so did Leicester City. De Gea pulled off an outstanding save from a header late in the game, while Sancho fluffed an opportunity on the half-volley in injury time which would have raised the Old Trafford roof.
Before the United injury time hunt for a winner, we in the ground had some nervous moments, awaiting a VAR reversal by the officials, after Leicester had appeared to put themselves 2-1 up through Morrison. An earlier foul meant it was chalked off. This is my first experience of VAR in the flesh and, at the ground, it adds an interesting new facet to the sport: fans cheering a referee; and some good opportunity for banter between rival fans, as the dancing visiting fans could be politely asked to “sit back down” following the decision.
I would recommend the Matchday VIP Experience at Old Trafford – especially since you get this lanyard and these pens as well as a key ring and matchday programs… and I do have a shortage of high-end swag, following two years of cancelled conferences.
Hire These Developers!
I would also recommend hiring Josh or Zeshan as your web developer via Codeable – they are both thoroughly amiable people, and very capable developers. Josh’s business can be found at Marketing The Change. Zeshan’s website is here.
Our day was kindly sponsored by my business at Silicon Dales, and the event nicely represents our commitment to maintaining strong developer relations in the Open Source community.
Watch Man Utd v Leicester City Premier League 2021/22 Highlights
You can see some of the moments I mention above, and more, in these official match highlights, courtesy of Sky Sports Football, who allow embedding for some of their EPL content – at least for viewers in the UK.
If you’d like to keep track of more Premier League 2021/22 Highlights, you can find them over in The Global Herald website which my business maintains.
Also for full disclosure – I’m not a fan of any particular football club… I spent too many Saturdays playing bad non-league football to pick up the habit, and it feels weird to choose one now – though it was fun to adopt United for the afternoon. I like to see the Northern English clubs doing well… like several of them are right now… United are a sleeping giant at present. They’ll be back.
