LeeDixon

The dressing room must have been the last place in the world any of the Manchester United players involved in Saturday's match wanted to be at both at half-time and full-time. The dressing down Sir Alex must have given his players will have been amongst the most brutal the great man has ever delivered. Wayne Rooney will have been upset at sitting out the match - apparently due to an evening out with his wife - but at least he was safe sitting in the stands!

The worst defeat I was ever involved in was actually against Manchester United. We lost 6-2 at home in the Carling Cup. I was given the task of marking Lee Sharpe. He scored a hat-trick. Ugly stuff but not quite as ugly as United's away kit that day. That 3-2 defeat on Saturday will surely have been one the worst of Sir Alex's time at Old Trafford but let's give Blackburn some credit. They were written off before a ball was kicked in anger by pretty much everyone, myself included. On Betfair they were backed at odds of 48.0 before kick-off. Fair play to whoever saw that one coming but there can't have been many. But they went out and played well and believed in themselves. People can say what they like about Steve Kean but on Saturday the players showed that they're behind him and wanted to play for him.

Match Odds

There will have to be a reaction from the United players, just like there was after that defeat at home to Manchester City. That's all well and good but United are massively handicapped at the moment by injuries. They've obviously got plenty of options in forward positions but Michael Carrick may have to play in central defence yet again and they may have to field players who are essentially wingers (like Ji-Sung Park or Antonio Valencia) in the centre of midfield. I'm not entirely sure what all that Rooney business was about (I'm sure all or some of the truth will come out at some stage) but I do know that United missed him on Saturday. With all the strikers fit, they could have done with him in midfield once again.

The Newcastle fans will no doubt be reminding the United players about that last result and that will just add to the pressure. These two drew at Old Trafford a few weeks ago and I wouldn't rule out a repeat of that again. But I wouldn't be that amazed if Newcastle actually won the match either so I'm actually going to lay United at 1.84 rather than back the draw.

Half-time Score

There could be a few goals in this game and a couple could come in the first half so backing the 1-1 half-time draw looks a decent bet.

First Goalscorer

Demba Ba has been one of the players of the season for me. He's worked hard, led the line well and scored plenty of goals. Which is even more remarkable given he plays for a team who aren't exactly famous for creating too many chances. Newcastle will miss him badly when he reports for African Cup Of Nations duty. That's for Alan Pardew to worry about in a couple of weeks though. For the time being he's available to play and is a good bet to open the scoring.

2 pts Lay Manchester United @ 1.84
1 pt Back 1-1 half-time score @ 9.0
2 pts Back Demba to be first goalscorer @ 9.0

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