Manchester United wasted a chance to cement their position at the top of the Premier League after being held to a 2-2 draw at home to 10-man Sunderland on Saturday.
Only an injury-time own-goal equalizer by Anton Ferdinand salvaged a point for the champions.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s side had kicked off looking for a ninth consecutive win in all competitions, but they twice fell behind to Steve Bruce’s side, who conceded the late equalizer after former United winger Kieran Richardson had been sent off after being booked for a second time for petulantly kicking the ball away at a free-kick.
PHOTO: EPA
Darren Bent stunned United in the seventh minute when he drove a low shot past Ben Foster from the edge of the penalty area for his seventh goal of the season.
United equalized in spectacular fashion in the 51st minute through Dimitar Berbatov’s overhead-kick, only for Kenwyne Jones to restore the lead by rising above Foster to head in Andy Reid’s cross.
The Black Cats were set for their first win at Old Trafford since 1968, but their evening ended in frustration as Evra’s shot found the net off the boot of Ferdinand.
“Our passing was very poor in the first half. In the end, we needed to show some great qualities to get something out of the game on a day when we played really badly,” Ferguson said.
Former United star Bruce admitted a draw was hard to take.
“I don’t know what the stat is for the number of times Manchester United have done that, but it is what makes this club what it is I suppose,” Bruce said.
At the other end of the table, Portsmouth glimpsed some light at the end of a very dark tunnel as the crisis-hit club finally claimed their first points of the season with a 1-0 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
At the end of a week in which the failure to pay last month’s salaries on time raised concerns the club could be on the brink of bankruptcy, a first-half goal from Hassan Yebda was enough to draw a line under a run of seven straight defeats for Paul Hart’s side.
After the match, a relieved Hart confirmed the outstanding wages owed to certain players and staff would be paid today and claimed new owner Sulaiman Al-Fahim was planning a £150 million (US$239 million) injection of cash.
“I think what is best said is over the next few days we will have new investment and this club will have some good news instead of bad stuff,” Hart said.
The goal that ended Portsmouth’s miserable run came in the 19th minute, when Yebda, on loan from Benfica, headed in Kevin-Prince Boateng’s cross.
Portsmouth defender Mark Wilson was fortunate to escape sanction for what appeared to be a blatant hand-ball inside the penalty area and only a superb late stop by David James denied Greg Halford a volleyed equalizer.
It was also a day of relief for Portsmouth’s fellow strugglers Hull City, who escaped from the relegation zone with a 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic.
Former Celtic striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink notched his first Premier League goal for Hull with a near post header to give Phil Brown’s side the lead against Wigan.
Brazilian playmaker Geovanni doubled the lead with just over 20 minutes left, but on-loan Chelsea striker Scott Sinclair ensured a tense finale for the home supporters by pulling a goal back three minutes from the end.
Tottenham Hotspur’s aspirations to breaking into the top four took a dent as they were obliged to twice come from behind to draw 2-2 at Bolton Wanderers.
Bolton were twice pegged back by Spurs in an entertaining encounter at the Reebok Stadium.
Ricardo Gardner put Bolton into the lead after only three minutes had elapsed, firing home a rebound after South Korean midfielder Lee Chung-yong’s shot was blocked. Niko Kranjcar, with his first goal for Tottenham since his transfer deadline day move from Portsmouth, leveled 10 minutes before halftime.
Kevin Davies headed in a Tamir Cohen cross to restore Bolton’s lead, but Spurs responded in similar fashion through Vedran Corluka.
Burnley made it four wins from four home matches this season by beating Birmingham City 2-1 at Turf Moor.
Second-half goals from Steven Fletcher and Andre Bikey put Burnley in control, with Sebastian Larsson’s injury-time strike just a consolation for Birmingham.
Yesterday’s early kick-off:
• Arsenal X, Blackburn Rovers X
Also See: LFP: Pedro strike leaves Barca top
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier