Sunderland's failure to beat Charlton earlier in the day meant that if Town could get an expected victory against Man Utd then we would get out of the relegation zone.

Enter Rob Styles, referee of today's fixture. He had seemed to be in control of a high tempo match in the opening half, with very little decisions to be made. But when a crucial one comes along, one that could affect both ends of the table, Mr Styles bottles it.

Whilst many will say that it is our inconsistent form that will send us down, die-hard fans will argue that it was a decision by Rob Styles at 6.20pm on Saturday 26th April.

It was an absolute howler of a decision after a first half that had seen us put in a battling display.

We defended well, created a couple of chances and had a pretty decent half. But two minutes into stoppage time The Incident (as we will now refer to it) took place and we went in at half time behind.

Our hopes were then dealt an even bigger blow when Paul Scholes came on for United in place of the injured Michael Stewart. Now we had a game on our hands

We seemed to create a few chances in the opening half but no one really threatened Roy Carroll's goal whilst at the other end Andy Marshall made several saves and watched Van Nistelrooy miss the target on three separate occasions.

And it was United who started the second period the better of the sides but they weren't given a chance to create much thanks to some excellent Ipswich defending.

Solskjaer replaced Van Nistelrooy on the hour. For some reason that seemed to spur us into action and Marcus Bent was denied a possible penalty after colliding with O'Shea and Brown.

Bent number two, Darren, came on and looked lively and soon after Marcus Bent was replaced by Armstrong. But United always looked more likely to score and it took a couple of great saves by Andy Marshall to prevent Diego Forlan and Dennis Irwin from scoring. The match then looked to be over but Roy Keane's swerving drive cannoned off the underside of the bar before being cleared by Bramble.

As the match was reaching a close, several players were involved in a blazing row over nothing, but it all seemed to be blown out of context by Nicky Butt. To his credit, Styles handled the situation well, and Town went close from the free kick although it was all in vain as United held on for the win after a late spell of pressure by the home side.

So it's further disappointment for the Tractor Boys and we are in desperate need of a last day miracle to prevent us from going back to the league that it took us so long to get out of...

From The Terrace