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LISANDRO MARTINEZ’S deflected winner offered some respite to under-pressure Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim as the Red Devils won 1-0 at Fulham on Sunday.
A dreary encounter looked set to end goalless until Martinez’s shot 12 minutes from time hit Sasa Lukic and looped over Bernd Leno.
Just a fourth Premier League win in 12 games for Amorim lifts United to 12th in the table.
Amorim suggested that United’s best performances during his opening two months had come away from home due to nerves about performing in front of an expectant home crowd at Old Trafford.
But this display was in keeping with many others from the English giants this season, under two different managers, against sides with a fraction of their budget.
There was little to get United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe excited as he watched on in west London, but victory does dispel any remaining notion that United could be dragged into a relegation battle.
Fulham made the brighter start but were also guilty of a lack of penetration in a pedestrian 90 minutes.
Andre Onana returned in goal for the visitors despite his error for Brighton’s third goal in the Seagulls 3-1 win at Old Trafford last weekend.
The Cameroonian was forced into two early saves from the lively Alex Iwobi.
It took just before the hour mark for United to seriously threaten when Bruno Fernandes’ clever free-kick slid under the Fulham wall but just the wrong side of the post.
Rasmus Hojlund’s return had been one of five changes made by Amorim from a dramatic 2-1 Europa League win over Rangers on Thursday.
But the Dane’s goal drought extended to 11 games as he barely posed a threat before being replaced by Joshua Zirkzee.
Adama Traore flashed a shot just over for Fulham in a rare dangerous moment for either side.
And it was little surprise that it was a moment of fortune rather than inspiration that broke the deadlock.
Martinez took aim from long range but in his desperation to block, Lukic’s deflection saw the ball fly over Leno and dip into the top corner.
Fulham should still have snatched a point as United’s frailty from set-pieces was exposed.
Joachim Andersen was afforded a free header from a corner but Toby Collyer got back to head off the line.
The visitors could also have extended their advantage deep into stoppage time when Amad Diallo’s strike was ruled out for offside by a VAR review.
But, just as in the meeting between the sides on the opening night of the season, one goal was enough for all three points for United.
Defeat dampens Fulham’s European ambitions as they remain in 10th, seven points off the top six.
Written by AFP and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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“He has not offended since” maybe because he was caught and was probably being monitored??
One year he’ll be out. Judge Nolan strikes again.
And to this day Paul begley is still taking therapy for being locked up by judge nolan for Importing garlic instead of apples. Even though he paid the revenue what was owed. Journal change headline to mature student.
@Paul Gorry: Simplistic boIIox. He wasn’t jailed for importing garlic instead of apples. He was jailed for committing a multimillion euro fraud on the citizens/taxpayers of this State. If he couldn’t hack the punishment for his crime, that’s on him.
@Tommy Roche: still got more time than this lad… and he employed people… bottom line is, don’t f*ck with the state’s money… if you do there will be no suspended sentence, anything else is fair game
@Paul Gorry: yeah so true. Sgt. Martin Nolan old scores for someone.
@Stephen Boland: he didnt get more time than this lad. He appealed his sentence and it was drastically reduced.
@Paul Gorry: he’s in therapy eight years after his release? At least his company is making €4K in profits weekly so he can well afford to pay for it.
if this had happened in his own country it would be off with his king ding a ling and probably his head. Here we give him a year tops, probably out in 6 months and no deportation. We have enough numptys of our own without letting this one stay. And can someone in government please for the love of Christ remove this excuse for a judge, Martin Nolan, from his post. The man is unfit for the role.
@Alan Clarke: so your suggestion is to murder people?
@Alan Clarke: he was given 16 months, he’ll get 25% remission which is 4 months off, so he’ll serve 12. Believe it or not that’s actually a decent sentence for this offence here. More often than not they get suspended sentences for first offences when distribution wasn’t involved.
Deport him as soon as he’s out
@Raymond Kelly: deport him first i’d say!
@paddy mulcahy:
“Deport him first”
In other words reward him for his crime with a free plane ticket home??
That is assuming that he is not Irish.
Why is he allowed stay here? I’m confused as to why he wouldn’t be kicked out to be honest?
@Ruby: let him serve his sentence then kick him out
No jail time deport back immediately and let the authories in his country know of antics. I bet he would rather do jail here.
@brendan o connell: ah shur all lives matter ya ya ya
@brendan o connell: we won’t do that because he could face the death penalty in Saudi ..we don’t like doing that… unless of course it’s the USA that asks us …
@Terry Cahill: actually I’d be surprised if there are laws relating to accessing illegal material online in Saudi Arabia. There aren’t in many gulf countries.
Oh Nolan was judge? No surprise there. That lad needs to be removed and investigated. The lad that did this, who’s name reads like a chemical? Chemical castration.
@The Kev in Kevlar: he was investigated, it’s what led to his being charged and sentenced.
This shouldn’t be tolerated in any way and it’s justice served that he was convicted. However, I’d be very interested to know how he was caught. Do the Gardai conduct random searches of people’s search history from certain keywords. Surely GDPR rules prevent the monitoring of people’s search history?
@Dan the man: if you read carefully, the Germans told the Gardaí
@Kevin Feeney: yes I can read. How was Interpol aware of what some lad was searching for from an Irish IP address?
@Dan the man: Think it says it in the article mate. German police alerted Interpol who in turn alerted Gardai. I imagine (and hope) there are state organisations searching out these websites and servers and then monitoring people that access them.
@Ciaran Brady: it doesn’t mate. No mention of how the German’s were randomly looking at the search history of an Irish computer
@Dan the man: the IP address identifies the source computer as based in Ireland.
@Geraldine D’Arcy: well done
@Dan the man: I was referring to how he was caught. Germans informed Interpol who then informed Gardai. The second part of my post is my opinion.
I think we can be sure that German police weren’t looking at random search histories however.
I’m no IT expert but surely it was a site or sites being monitored in order to capture the IP addresses of people accessing. Again, thats just my guess/opinion.
@Dan the man: looking for a way to.covwr your tracks?
@Dan the man: They were probably monitoring German citizens’ activities on particular sites and came across lots of IP addresses in other EU member states and notified the other police forces…..that or they are actively tracking these perverted sites with a view to closing them down.
@Dan the man: Sounds like you could be in bother Danno, ya nonce !
@Dan the man: You’re very interested in finding out how to avoid getting caught, aren’t you?
@Dan the man: Data protection is irrelevant in investigations of this, terrorist and organised crime related natures.
@Dan the man: police monitor places where sex abuse images are posted both on the normal Web and dark Web. Don’t worry their not going to be getting access to your browsing history from virgin media.
@Dan the man: being so concerned with how exactly he was caught is not a good look.
what happened. judge nolan actually sent him to jail. not like him. even with a small sentence
have your say