Theatre of Dreams & Rooney!!!

It's the Theatre of Dreams indeed... Many die-hard United fans from other parts of the world would have relished this opportunity.

My turn has arrived finally.

Ozzy, Shaq, Johanna and I set off to Manchester early in the morning to catch the FA Cup 4th round tie against Portsmouth. The journey took more than 4 hours, with our coach driver getting lost in the city due to closure of the main road.

We took a tram from Picadilly to Old Trafford. We had (famous according to Ozzy) fish and chips outside the stadium.

It was only 2.30pm. So we have plenty of time to visit the merchandise shop and snap some photos. Both Ozzy and I brought our DSLR along.

We entered the stadium at 4.30pm. The stadium looks nicer than I had imagined, amazing!

Few minutes later, the players came on the field to warm up - the likes of Rooney, Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, Park... Minus Ronaldo who has been given a week off by Fergie.

My camera doesn't have a good zoom lens, so I couldn't snap the photos of the players on the field.

The game started at 5 sharp with Mark Riley as the referee. Rooney was on the bench. Riley, who usually makes controversial decisions in favour of United, made 2 big errors today instead - disallowing Vidic's header which has clearly crossed the line and wrongly adjudged Larsson for being off-side after he has scored.

The fans were getting impatient by the middle of the second half as United could not find the net despite dominating the game. Everyone started chanting Rooney! Rooney! And true enough he came on in place of Solskjaer a while later and made immediate impression! The first goal was a tap in from Gigg's pass. The 2nd goal was marvellous, a reminiscence of Cantona's great goal against Sheffield United in 1995. He chipped David James exquisitely from 25 yards! James thought the shot was wide, but it wasn't!

Everytime when a United player is near to scoring, everyone at the stands will stood up to have a good look and get ready to cheer... The atmosphere will be really euphoric if a goal ensue.

The final moments were tensed as United let in a late goal. We've been letting in late goals lately, a small blemish to otherwise a great game.

Final score: 2 - 1

The journey back is a long one as we had to queue up for more than one hour to get on the tram from Old Trafford.

We only got back to London at 3am in the morning (another one and a half hour to get home).

All in all, it was a great trip. I would love to watch more games if not for the $$$ factor.

More photos: http://jihying.com/photos/old_trafford/