ANOTHER CARLING CUP

 

Last time around, we faced Spurs in the Carling Cup final at Wembley. Aaron Lennon proved to be the main headache in the early stages of the game but overall we were able to cruise our way to half time without looking to be in any danger of being breached. In the second half the Reds were running the show and really should have buried Spurs before the final whistle but ultimately failed to find the net, luckilly Spurs couldn't do anything either. United knew that they would need extra time to settle things. It had been a frustrating match so far and there was definately the feeling that it should have been won already, but that's football at times.

Extra time saw United overhaul their midfied but still the match slowed down quite a bit and even that didn't stop the Spurs players from going down with cramp. United were the only team that looked interested in scoring for the first period. Eventually Spurs got their act together and had some decent attempts but ultimately they counted for nothing and cue more cramp. United had the last opportunity of the period but eventually the game was forced into a shootout. United went on to win the shootout 4-1 with Anderson of all people managing to seal Spurs's fate. It was the first time we'd won the competition since '06 and we did it without picking our strongest team throughout the competition.

This time around we found ourselves facing Villa. Now of course they are familiar opponents from the Premiership(and coming into this match we'd yet to win against them this season) and the Villains were near constant foes in the FA Cup at one point. The main fixture this was a rematch of was the '94 Coca Cola Cup final with a Ron Atkinson gaffered side beating the "Come on you Reds" team 3-1 at Wembley to deny them a domestic treble. After that, Villa picked up one more Coca Cola Cup in '96 and that was their fifth League Cup overall. They haven't even made the final since though which is surprising since they've never been completely useless.

This time around, well given our previous record against Villa this season this was certainly not going to be easy. However though Fergie will never admit to taking this trophy seriously, getting to back to back finals in this competition is no mean feat, particularly as it's largely our reserves that deserve the credit. Either way, the Carling Cup final at Wembley was always going to be a big match. United went 4-4-2 with Kusczak in goal, Vidic and Evans in central defence(Rio injured again!), Evra as captain, Valencia right mid, Carrick and Fletcher centre mid, Berbatov and Owen up front with Wayne not 100% fit which made the pundits even more nervous.

Well one way not to start a Cup final is to give away a penalty. James Milner did the honours for Villa on that occasion. Luckilly we were able to reply in the 12th minute when Berbatov was disposessed only for the ball to fall to Owen and the England assasin would have hoped he'd have got the attention of the watching Fabio. United hammered the Villa goal for the rest of the half but somehow couldn't turn the game around before the half time whistle. Owen picking up yet another injury before halftime wasn't ideal for him but it hardly looked to hurt United too much but Villa still couldn't be taken for granted, the Cup was very much up for grabs.

United had the first real chance of the second half but again weren't able to hit the net right away and Villa were more than able to give us a match which meant that the game looked certain to go into extra time which wouldn't be ideal. However with Rooney having coming off the bench the game was never unwinnable and in the 74th minute Valencia crossed to the England assasin who headed it into the net - again! Villa tried to make a comeback of things and United did wind up dodging a late bullet. Still the Reds held on to claim the first trophy of the English domestic season and we can only hope that more are to come before the season is out.

So, United have won the 2010 Carling Cup, that's the second year in a row we've managed to win the trophy and it's the first time we've pulled that off since the competition started up in 1961! The last team to do it was Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest side in 1989-90. For Valencia it his first trophy in English football, for Owen his first trophy for United(though he did win the old Worthington Cup twice when he was with the Scousers, and the second time was in '03 - when he scored against United in the final!). It hasn't been a walkover this time around, the semi against City was certainly quite a rumble but whatever happens for the rest of the season we know we won't have come away empty handed.

In the meantime there was some Premiership action going on. The Big one saw Chelsea beaten 4-2 by Man City at Stamford Bridge! It was Chelsea's first home defeat of the season with City burying them in the second half. Spurs then beat Everton 2-1 at White Hart Lane with the home side seemingly wrapping up the match at halftime only for the Toffees to pull a goal back early in the second half. They never looked likely to find an equaliser though. That leaves United 2nd in the Premiership, just one point behind leaders Chelsea and still eleven points ahead of Spurs and a detour through the Champions League preliminaries. The title race is nowhere near done yet.

North of the border Aberdeen continued their SPL campaign, except that their disaster has continued. First up they lost 3-1 to Falkirk at the Falkirk Stadium despite getting themselves an early opener, the home side had already turned the game round by half time. Then they lost 1-0 to Hearts at Pittodrie. This was despite the visiting side going down to ten men early in the second hald when the scores were still level, their eighth defeat in a rown. That means that the Dons remain 7th in the SPL, eight points behind Hearts and the top half of the table and none points ahead of Falkirk and relegation. Mark McGhee is now getting seriously worried about the possibility of the Dons going down.

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