A round-up of last night’s reserve action which saw returns for Neville and Agger, plus some clues on the likely lineups for the weekend.
Gary Neville got an hour for United’s reserves last night but couldn’t prevent them losing 2-0 to a strong Liverpool lineup. Neville started the match at right-back and was subbed, unscathed, after 61-minutes.
The full-back has been out of first-team action since last March after breaking his ankle and suffering a variety of niggling injuries along his path to a return. This latest step would appear to edge him closer to a return to Premiership action however, and with Wes Brown currently in Ferguson’s bad books over contract wrangling, it would appear that Neville should be back in the United lineup this month.
Liverpool had a comeback of their own in last night’s game as Daniel Agger started in defence, his first game since September 15. Agger was replaced by Skrtel at half-time. Alonso and Kewell got the goals for Liverpool, with Alonso crowned man of the match. He could well be in line to make a return to the first eleven at some point in Liverpool’s forthcoming double gameweek in which they play Bolton at the weekend, before hosting West Ham on Wednesday.
A Man City lineup boasting Johnson, Caicedo, Mpenza and Castillo, put four past Everton’s reserves last night. Mpenza got a brace to add to goals by Caicedo and Castillo. The latter was subbed just after the hour-mark, along with Johnson, offering clues that both are likely to be in the squad, if not the lineup, for Saturday’s game with Wigan. Garrido meanwhile played the full 90, indication that perhaps Sven is thinking of a more attacking alternative to Petrov’s replacement.
West Ham’s reserves beat a Spurs reserve side 3-1 last night, with both Zamora and Ashton in attack. Ashton got a goal in the victory but significantly, he played the full 90-minutes, whilst Zamora was subbed at half-time, perhaps with the weekend clash with Chelsea in mind.
On Monday, Lita, Long and Bikey all turned for Reading’s reserves against Villa in a 1-1 draw. Long got the Reading goal and all three would appear to be pushing for starts as Coppell threatens to ring the changes for the trip to Boro this weekend.