A Rover all view, with JASON WHALLEY. . .

BEFORE the start of this season I said that after five games we'd know what type of a season it was to be.

But when I said that I didn't expect to have to take into account how shocking refereeing would be affecting us.

Three points have been lost through incompetence from the men in black this season and the manager's well worn mantra of 'our luck has to turn soon' has been repeated to the point of exhaustion.

The games against Manchester United always seem to court controversy but the decisions rarely go in our favour. One thinks back to the Berg sending off and the disallowed Yorke equaliser at Old Trafford last year as cases in point.

But this time not only did we have to contend with Ferguson going all red-faced over the amount of stoppage time but also a clear handball 'set' for the goal that wouldn't have looked out of place on a volleyball court. So, instead of celebrating our third home win in a row against United, the referee made sure it would only be a point.

The last week has been one where it would have been difficult to be too optimistic on how we would fare given the quality of opposition and our own indifferent form.

The Arsenal defeat was pretty much expected but the first half performance was encouraging.

Having not been able to second guess either the team selection, or formation over the first four games of the season it was both surprising and encouraging to see the way we were set up on Saturday.

All the players were in something like their best positions and our formation looked to rely on what we could do rather than to worry about what the opposition might do.

The performance reflected the confidence that the manager had shown in his charges and for my money I thought we were well worth our half time lead. Certainly, United were the better team in the second half and Friedel was magnificent - but I don't go for the theory of a draw being a fair result. How can it be when it comes courtesy of such an unfair non-decision?

Having said all of that, once the initial disappointment of the nature of the result had worn off I can reflect on the performance and the coming games in a lot more positive manner.

In Ferguson, we have a player who seems to have all the attributes of a top class Premiership midfielder and Dickov has been nothing short of outstanding so far.

So, finally there are reasons to be cheerful, and hopefully we can keep a reasonably settled side and formation in the forthcoming games. We are certainly good enough. It's now time for it to be reflected in our points total.