Owen Goals

Daft romantics may be tempted by the prospect of Crawley Town pulling off the shock of all time by beating the mighty Man Utd in their own backyard at 28/1. The more cynical punter may see this as the time to predict a proper drubbing with a 10-0 home win quoted at 450/1 by bet365. But realistically if the floodgates open the final scoreline is highly unpredictable. Anything less than 3-0 to United will seem like a major coup for Crawley but beyond that much will depend, one imagines, on how often the woodwork is struck and how many goalkeepers the underdogs try to sneak on.

A better market to look at could be for a specific player to score ‘two or more.’ Crawley striker Mathew Tubbs is incredibly just 33/1 to do this with bet365 but call me Mr Unadventurous but I’m going to stick with a United player for this one. Arguably the toughest trick is to second guess Alex Ferguson’s starting line-up because he has a few strikers licking their lips. My guess would be that a forward pairing of Javier Hernandez and Michael Owen is likely. Would the boss ever forgive himself if either Berbatov or Rooney picked up an injury ahead of the away trip to Marseilles in the Champions League?

Selecting strikers of the calibre of Hernandez and Owen would hardly be dismissive of Crawley at any rate. Both players started and scored in the away trip to Southampton in the previous round and would expect their chance tomorrow. Hernandez is a best price of 3/1 with bet365 to score two or more while Owen is 4/1 with VictorChandler. I’d just about plump for the former England striker to fill his boots with the predatory instincts that non-league opponents should struggle to contain.

Without being disrespectful to Crawley, if they tire on the big pitch at Old Trafford, it’s quite possible than more than one player could bag a brace. It’s also conceivable that a substitute could capitalise on any fatigue so even if Owen comes off the bench he could be worth a shout.