Ten-man Saints were, as expected, well beaten by the English, European and World champions Manchester United at St Mary’s this evening as goals from Danny Wellbeck, Nani and Darron Gibson ensured there was to be no giant-killing act.
Jan Poortvliet was forced into one change from the side that drew 1-1 against Reading last week with Olly Lancashire replacing the recalled Jack Cork, who has now joined Watford on loan for the rest of the season. Lee Holmes wasn’t deemed fit enough to start, so Andrew Surman came straight back into the team having recovered from the foot injury he suffered late in the Boxing Day clash at Plymouth.
United made a number of changes from the side that beat Middlesbrough in the Premier League. Gary Neville replaced Rafael da Silva at right-back, Anderson, Nani and Ryan Giggs came into midfield for Park Ji Sung, Darren Fletcher and Cristiano Ronaldo, while Danny Welbeck partnered Dimitar Berbatov up front.
The game was flowing nicely from end to end in the opening exchanges, with Saints not looking too overawed by the occasion. Ryan Smith, David McGoldrick and Rudi Skacel all had efforts from long-range, although none troubled Edwin van der Sar in the United goal. Ryan Giggs shot tamely wide at the other end, and Surman got in a last-ditch block to deny Welbeck an opportunity.
Saints were looking fairly comfortable as the 20-minute mark approached, but then all that decent work was undone from a set-piece. Carrick’s corner found John O’Shea unmarked at the near post, whose header was brilliantly diverted onto the crossbar by Kelvin Davis, but the rebound fell kindly for Welbeck to nod into the empty net. There didn’t seem to be any suggestion of anything “wrong” with the goal at the time, and there were no protests from the Saints defence, but TV replays suggested that Welbeck was actually offside when O’Shea won the header at the near post, so in actual fact, Saints had been hard done by, although in mitigation it was a very tight call so I don’t really pin any blame on the referee’s assistant for missing it.
United almost doubled their lead five minutes later when a great bit of link-up play between Carrick and Berbatov found Carrick in the clear. He chipped the ball over the onrushing Davis and looked certain to tap into an empty net when Chris Perry arrived from nowhere to put in a challenge that saw the ball ricochet off Carrick’s shin and behind for a goal kick.
Saints almost fashioned a way back into the game shortly after when Jonny Evans’ control let McGoldrick in for a run on goal. Evans decided the only way to stop him was a cynical foul from behind on the edge of the area which brought him a yellow card. With two other defenders in reasonably close proximity, although interestingly not nearer to the United goal than McGoldrick, it was out of Evans’ control that he survived without a dismissal. The decision was made by Mike Riley. More on him very shortly.
If Saints thought that playing against the best of the best with eleven men was going to be hard, they were about to find it even harder still, as Matt Paterson chased down a bouncing ball and, at first glance, made a seemingly inoccuous challenge on Nemanja Vidic. Nobody seemed to make a big deal out of it, least of all Vidic who hobbled around for a few seconds before going to ground to get some treatment. Riley pulled Paterson to one side and, to the astonishment of everyone, produced the red card. Even the United fans seemed completely bewildered by the decision. Again, much like Welbeck’s goal, matters were only made clearer by the benefit of TV highlights after the game. On reflection, while Paterson’s challenge wasn’t made with a great deal of force, it’s clear to see why Riley produced the straight red card, as Paterson’s studs made clear contact high up on Vidic’s shin. That said, in context with some high-profile challenges that have taken place recently (Julio Arca on Andy Johnson in the Premier League being the one that immediately springs to mind), Paterson might still feel a little hard done by.
Welbeck had an opportunity to double United’s advantage a minute before half-time when his near-post flick was turned away by Davis’ foot, and Saints held on to go into the break with a one-goal deficit and a chance to regroup.
They came out at the start of the second half looking determined to turn things around, but unfortunately Mike Riley put paid to that within three minutes. Lloyd James was penalised for a supposed foul on Nani on the edge of the area, when it looked clear that he had made contact with the ball. From the resulting free-kick, which Nani took himself, the ball struck the back of David McGoldrick’s head and appeared to rebound to the relative safety of a corner. Riley had other ideas, though, and - to the bemusement of everyone - awarded a penalty. Nani stepped up and sent Davis the wrong way to all but seal United’s passage to a Fourth Round home tie against Tottenham.
Both teams made a double substitution ten minutes into the second half. For the visitors, Darron Gibson and Rodrigo Possebon replaced Carrick and Giggs, and for Saints, Morgan Schneiderlin made his return from another injury setback alongside Kayne McLaggon in place of Simon Gillett and Oscar Gobern.
Ryan Smith then created Saints’ best chance of the game when he outmuscled O’Shea on the right wing and then cut inside Evans to open United’s defence wide open, but he appeared to lose his footing just as he was letting fly with a shot that ended up going just over the bar and into the crowd.
You could be forgiven for thinking that United, with plenty of big games coming up in the next few weeks, would want to take their foot off the pedal a bit with the game seemingly now out of reach, but Sir Alex Ferguson was having none of that, and he brought on Wayne Rooney to replace Welbeck. Jan Poortvliet also made Saints’ last substitution, replacing Smith with Lee Holmes.
To be honest, the rest of the game was pretty forgettable. With 9 minutes remaining, Rooney managed to wriggle free of Lancashire’s attention, and with the angle against him, decided to cut the ball back to the oncoming Gibson, who took a touch before firing past Davis to make it 3-0, and that was that.
It’s hard to guage what to take from this game, really. Clearly we’re not going to be playing against the likes of Berbatov, Rooney and Vidic every week, and they’re a cut above any Championship player. While we were on level terms, both in terms of the score and in terms of players on the pitch, we were at least competing. With the main focal point for the attack sat in the dressing room, it was always going to be that much harder, and it should come as not much of a surprise that we struggled to cope with the extra ability right through their team with that added disadvantage.
The age-old cliche will be that we are now free to concentrate on the league, and one “bonus” is that the players will have an extra break at the end of the month when the fourth round takes place. With so many young players in the squad, most of whom aren’t used to playing more than 15-20 games a season but have already got through the best part of 30, that rest period could be crucial to recharge some batteries.
