Andy Reid promises a positive display

Oct 12 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

Reid revealed that the longer last week went on, the more his mood shifted from disappointment at being denied victory over the Red Devils by Anton Ferdinand’s injury-time own goal, to pride at the performance which brought his team so close.

“I must be mad but I went back and watched Match of the Day and all night I kept thinking, ‘What if?’” he admitted.

“With the way the game went and the way the goals went, we came off the pitch very disappointed.

“It almost felt like a defeat. But you remind yourself you’d have snatched somebody’s hand off to take a point from Old Trafford.

“The pleasing thing isn’t so much that we got a point, it’s the way we played. There won’t be too many teams go to Man United and play that well this season.

“Last season we went to Old Trafford and they scored in injury time and we kind of came away feeling sorry for ourselves but if we were realistic about it they could have beaten us four or 5-0.

“We were clearing things off the line, they were hitting the bar.

“This season it was completely different.

“We matched them in every department – not just work-rate and stopping them playing, but we played football ourselves.”

The Wearsiders were linked in the Sunday newspapers with a move for Newcastle United left-back Jose Enrique at the end of another week which highlighted their defensive frailties. George McCartney injured his foot on international duty with Northern Ireland. With Kieran Richardson suspended against Liverpool and John Mensah missing against Manchester United with a calf injury, Steve Bruce does not yet know who will be on the left-hand side of his back four on Saturday.

A January move for a left-back is inevitable, though Bruce will try to revive a deal for Wigan Athletic’s Maynor Figueroa, whose move in August fell through at the 11th hour.

Paulo Da Silva captained Paraguay to a 2-1 win in Venezuela on Saturday, Kenwyne Jones was Trinidad and Tobago’s lone striker in a 4-0 defeat in Costa Rica and Craig Gordon played in Scotland’s 2-0 friendly reverse in Japan. All three played the full 90 minutes.