THE rumour swept Old Trafford after yesterday’s game that United were going to open their superstore on Bank Holiday Monday.

It was apparently so the Red Devil’s faithful could buy the new home shirt complete with the name of their latest hero on. Steve Bennett. At least he’d be on United’s back then and not ours. Mascherano should not have kept up his stream of complaints to Bennett that’s true. but what is equally true is that Bennett only seemed interested in booking players in Liverpool shirts. Torres complained about being repeatedly fouled and was booked!

Bleed quietly in future, Fernando. Mascherano pointed out how ludicrous that decision was and was also shown a yellow. Ashley Cole nearly cut a Tottenham player in two during the week and turned his back on Mike Riley yet was only yellow-carded. The inconsistency and sheer ineptitude of referees simply beggars belief.

The 3-0 scoreline totally flattered United. It has to be said however that there was a lot of nervousness in Liverpool’s defence, in the first half especially. Particularly Pepe Reina, at fault for at least two goals. Why is he so cool in penalty shoot-outs yet looks nervy in some of the big games? Liverpool played better with 10 men in the second half but you can’t beat a team that has 12 men can you? especially when one of them has the whistle

The Liverpool fans outsang the Seafood Stretford-enders for most of the game. Kept in at the end, tTheir anthems reverberated around Old Trafford long after the United fans’ coaches had departed for the airport. They may have taken six points off us this season and may well win their 17th championship, but that’s still one short of our total and we’ve not started counting European Cups. If we do happen to meet again this season in Moscow, at least Steve Bennett won’t be there to “referee”. Although after his performance on Sunday, I suppose he could be there as a VIP guest of Alex Ferguson?