Man. City fans have already faced some bad luck as a Royal Mail van carrying 900 tickets of their allocation was robbed. The average value of the tickets was £65 and it’s possible they could end up on the black market at highly inflated prices. The F.A. says it has cancelled the tickets on it’s computer system and anyone trying to use one on the day will be refused entry. The tickets may not be reissued but the club have said they will be holding back 900 tickets for the affected fans if necessary. The Club said “Manchester City are working closely with Greater Manchester Police and Royal Mail in connection with the theft of special delivery mail items from a Royal Mail van on Friday,”. “A number of tickets for the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium were stolen. All supporters impacted by the theft will be contacted by the club in the coming days. “Supporters are strongly advised not to purchase tickets from unofficial sources. “Only tickets purchased direct from the club will be valid for the game.”

It seems Man. City will be missing Micah Richards who is suffering from a hamstring injury. The 22 year old defender was injured in the England Under 21s victory against Denmark last week and will be unavailable for the next four to six weeks. “It is not what I wanted to hear,” he said. “I felt sick when I was told. Of all the games to miss, a Wembley date with United is the last one any player would choose”. Defender Jerome Boateng is also injured and City will be seeking a second opinion on whether he requires surgery to his knee when he returns from International duty with Germany.

On the other side of the city at Old Trafford, they have their own problems with Rooney facing a two match ban from the F.A. after he was charged with “use of offensive, insulting and/or abusive language”. Rooney launched into a foul mouthed tirade on camera after scoring a hat-trick in the match against West Ham. The player, who issued an apology soon after the game, appealed on the grounds the punishment was to severe, however the F.A. upheld their original decision. Rooney will now miss the Fulham game and more importantly the semi-final.

In spite of the problems faced by both clubs the fans will be looking forward to a great day out and hopefully some great football. The streets of Manchester look set to be extremely quiet on Saturday but the clubs and pubs might do quite well and if the weather’s kind there could be quite a cloud of ‘barby’ smoke hanging over the city!.

Full betting odds for the Manchester United Vs Manchester F.A. Cup Semi Final as listed below.

City take a 1 goal advantage into the second leg at the Theatre Of Dreams after hanging on desperately in the final 20 minutes of the match.

Manchester is at fever pitch ahead of Wednesday’s second leg Carling Cup semi final, but while some people fear trouble in and around the ground Neville expects a healthy rivalry. He said: “The atmosphere last Tuesday was very good. All Manchester derbies have a great atmosphere and Wednesday will be no different at our ground.

You can show your support for Neville and the lads with the Game Hunters exclusive ‘Gary Neville Is Red… He Hates Tevez’ wallpaper. Just click here to open the wallpaper in a new window, once opened you can right click and select ‘set as desktop background’.

Shirt Number betting is where you bet on the sum of the shirt numbers from the players who score the match goals. Recently his has become quite popular, it’s a good way to get a bet on a game if you’re not sure who’s gonna win…

Let’s say that in an Arsenal V Man Utd game, the shirt spread is set at 27-30 by the bookmaker. You bet on whether the goals in the match will be scored by players wearing shirt numbers that add up to either less than 27 combined on their shirts or more than 30. If you thought it would be a high scoring game and bet more than 30, if the game was 1 – 1 draw with both Arshavin and Giggs on the score sheet then you would win because Giggs wears shirt number 11 and Arshavin 23 which makes a total of  34.

This is not an easy market to make money on so you really need to do your homework first. Some squads have high shirt numbers and others have strikers with relatively low numbers so make sure you know who’s playing, what number they are wearing and weight it up against the spread that’s on offer.

Shirt Number betting means that not only do you have to correctly predict the score of the match but also the goal scorers which can be tricky with teams that share the goal scoring responsibility amongst a few different players. But if you feel that a game will be low-scoring and the spread is set high at 27-30 then it may be worth going for.

There are a couple of tips for Shirt Number betting though. Firstly, if you’re new to this type of betting then go small with the bets. Finally look out for line-ups where regular goal scorers have high shirt numbers – this can work in your favour if the spread is high. Betfair bookmakers have shirt number betting on all Premier League games if you wanna try it out.