Manchester United Vs Wigan Athletic: The Community Shield

The FA Community Shield

Manchester United Vs Wigan Athletic

Score: 2 - 0

Kick Off: 2:00pm (BST)

Referee: Mark Clattenburg

Assistant Referees: Mike Mullarkey and Scott Ledger

Fourth Official: Michael Oliver

Wigan Athletic Line Up

01 Scott Carson

03 Stephen Crainey

17 Emmerson Boyce (C)

24 James Perch

25 Leon Barnett

04 James McCarthy (Nouha Dicko-86')

08 Ben Watson (Roger Espinoza-71')

16 James McArthur (Chris McCann-61')

09 Grant Holt (Marc-Antoine Fortune-61')

10 Maloney (Jordi Gomez-71')

11 James McClean (Callum McMananman-62')

Substitutes:

13 Lee Nicholls

07 Chris McCann

14 Jordi Gomez

18 Roger Espinoza

29 Nouha Dicko

15 Callum McManaman

32 Marc-Antoine Fortune

Manchester United Line Up

01 David De Gea

02 Rafael Da Silva (Chris Smalling-16')

03 Patrice Evra

04 Phil Jones

15 Nemanja Vidic

11 Ryan Giggs (Anderson-67')

16 Michael Carrick

23 Tom Cleverley

19 Danny Welbeck (Kagawa-83')

20 Robin Van Persie (Januzaj-84')

29 Wilfried Zaha (Valencia-61')

Substitutes:

13 Anders Lindegaard

06 Jonny Evans

12 Chris Smalling

08 Anderson

25 Luis Antonio Valencia

26 Shinji Kagawa

44 Januzaj

Summary

Unfortunately, this game was a bit of a non-event after all the build-up and anticipation. Wigan did not start well and that led to Van Persie scoring once again in the seventh minute! The defence simply switched off and no-one picked up RVP and a striker such as he will not miss such a sitter. We perked up after this and United had much less of the ball. This bright spell from Wigan peaked with Emmerson Boyce knocking a header across goal from a free-kick but we just couldn't get that elusive goal.

The second half started well from our point of view and United didn't have any of the ball or trouble us for around ten minutes. But, again, a mistake in defence led to the Red Devils having a couple of chances: one of which was a scuffed shot by RVP which happened to hit James Perch's leg and deflect in to the net. After this the game calmed down and there weren't many other chances. The game just petered out.

All I will say is that several players who I thought would perform in this match did not perform. Maloney, McManaman, McCarthy, and McCarthur all disappointed and did not manage to replicate the form that ultimately won us the FA Cup.  Overall a negative performance from Wigan Athletic and it didn't seem like we believed we could win the Shield.