COMMENT: Manchester United fans have spent most of the season pulling at their hair, but whilst Louis Van Gaal might consider them to be sadomasochists, it's the manager's style of play that has left us with the hair loss.
Leicester City turned up at Old Trafford knowing that a win would crown them Premier League champions, only a Steven Gerrard-type slip would deny them their fairytale.
United and their fans wanted to spoil the celebrations, you don't want people using your house for their party, even if you would rather see Leicester win the league than one of your real rivals. Leicester fans filled their corner of Old Trafford, 3,000 fans ready to witness the unbelievable. Yet only last season, they struggled to sell 600 tickets as their side sat in the relegation zone. They need to get used to the glory hunters jumping on their newly found bandwagon.
United started the game with attacking intent, even if that did consist of too many long balls knocked up to Marouane Fellaini, with the young United forwards failing to make the most of his knock downs. A great run from right fullback Antonio Valencia saw him deliver an excellent cross for once, finding Anthony Martial whose composure and finish put United 1-0 up.
The bright opening wasn't capitalised on by United and the momentum was soon lost. The story of United's season has been the inability to see off teams, slender leads thrown away by defensive mistakes. Leicester soon found themselves level, a cumulative sequence of basic defensive errors that's been exposed throughout the season resulted in Marcus Rojo leaving his man and Wes Morgan nodding in with a free header.
Leicester looked tired and nervous, but United had run out of ideas. Wayne Rooney spent the afternoon more concerned with chasing the referee than looking to create. Whilst the ball was passed backwards and sideways more often than delivered into any danger areas.
Leicester came away with a point, which following Spurs' draw on Monday night, meant they were crowned Champions. The celebrations taking place in Jamie Vardy's kitchen rather than in United's front room.
The telling story of Leicester's title win for United fans is the points gap between the top and United's struggle for a top four finish. Overall the league campaign has been poor and the quality of football on offer will see many fans give serious thought to renewing their season tickets. Even an FA Cup win isn't enough to convince supporters that Van Gaal remains the man for the job.
The attention now turns to a top four finish, Champions League football can make a big difference to securing transfer targets in the summer, but the task looks beyond United.
At Monday night's Player of the Year awards, the main gongs went once again to David De Gea and the player's award to Chris Smalling. That's a telling story of United's season, where once creative players or attacking forwards would dominate, now its two defensive players who stand out. However, the future looks bright. Martial, Marcus Rashford and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson all took the other awards, testimony to the youth that's made its mark and took their chance next season.
Let's hope the future is one of beautiful sexy football rather than the sadomasochistic hair pulling we've endured.
Andrew is the co-founder of Stretford End Flags, an independent fans group set up to improve the atmosphere and colour within Old Trafford. SEF provide the famous Stretford End banners. Visit stretfordendflags.com for more information - and to get involved.
Follow Stretford End Flags on Twitter: @sef_Mufc
