Match Day Thread Manchester United vs Southampton EFL CUP Final Sunday 26/02/2017 Kick-Off 4:30PM

With the Chapocoense disaster still so raw saying something like that has no place in football. He's certainly not a fan I'd associated myself with.

 

Yep. Strange as he seemed perfectly normal up until then (the winner), his Son looked suitably embarrased.

He left before the whistle.

 

First and foremost, a great day yesterday, took the kids and they were awestruck by the whole thing, regardless of the result. Was also good for my mood as the logistics of getting them home was a temporary distraction from my disappointment. That subsequently kicked in hard this morning on the early journey into work, and augmented by the Metro's coverage which gave very little in terms of the full picture

Three well-worked and well-taken goals, and creating much more which is great news for the remainder of the season hopefully. Assuming Caceres might come in on Saturday, let's see.

Never thought I would say this (as I am not usually thinking about it) but since I was with the kids (5 and 8) I was shocked at the language where we were (upper tier north side). Don't get me wrong, I'll give it more than plenty myself generally, but not when small kids are around whether they are mine or someone else's. The only time I've witnessed worse was Palace away in about 2008 when a group of lads were singing "warnock , warnock you're a c**t" for about half an hour. On the way back up Wembley Way one guy was giving it two (full) barrels to some Manu kids but apologised profusely when nudged by his missus and he realised I had two little ones with me. Am taking the younger to Watford with me next weekend so will cover his ears!

Also the two blokes sat next to us missed both of our goals! No sympathy whatsoever. Another guy asked me at half time what the goal was like, I said it was like the first one but counted this time. He said he missed it because he came down to beat the queues. I don't know whether he wanted me to say "oh how unlucky for you" or something. I just shrugged....

 

I thought Marriner refereed the game pretty well.

 

Advice.

I bought a scarf at the green man before the game and obviously got the free one as well.

The question is, which one do I give to my nephews and which do I hang on my lads bedroom wall?

 

Yep, bullies in their own little playground. Jostling older saints fans trying to provoke a response, laughing at younger ones because they had Wembley printed on their shirts etc etc, to the one at Bond Street tube who thought it would be funny to attempt to hang his Utd scarf around my neck (he got the message pretty swiftly that it was not a good idea!!!) Really nasty and unpleasant, but nothing more than I've come to expect from that grubby lot. What did amuse me were the ones next to us at the tube queue who spoke with west country accents, but sang their ridiculous songs with a distinct nasally manc twang.

Didn't take away from a grand weekend though. I'm just surfacing from the gloomy mood of last night into a more proud and positive light today. A good night's sleep wouldn't go amiss mind!!!

 

Yeah, he didn't get anything wrong majorly himself, but just fell for their play acting every time ... really hacked me off!

 

I used to jokingly put my hands over my son's ears when he was young and the language got a bit ruch. He used to shrug me off and say he heard worse at school every day. And he knew better than to repeat any of it in front of his mum.

 

I thought the officials had a pretty good game apart from the odd key moment. The first goal should have stood, no doubt about it. That could have changed the entire game. Bertrand was so far away from the action he should have had a ticket. And I must look at the tackle on Shane Long as he went sprawling in the penalty area.

 

The Officials gave an 85% performance in my opinion, sadly we were the victims of most of their errors.

 

Sad story. I left my car in the Midlands, then travelled up and down with United fans each way. On the way down I chatted to a great group of - wait for it - MANCS. Like actually born and bought up in (I know it's a shock) Manchester, but now living elsewhere. We were talking about the "global brand" bit, and they all disliked glory hunting fans, albeit they accepted that it was the price to pay for being a big player. On the way back there were a couple of twats, but a group of United fans told them to shut it. One of these "United police" was not a lad anyone would mess with. I chatted to his little group about the game and they admitted to being embarrassed at the result, admitting that Saints were the better team while we generally talked football. They were "Midland Reds", all Brummie born and bred without any link to Manchester. I said I found that odd, but one of them said his local team was Villa, and so couldn't I understand why he'd always supported United!

There are some great United fans out there who are as annoyed by the antics of the prats like the ones you describe as clearly you are.

 

Not against us

 

More than pretty well, in my view. I thought he was excellent, on first viewing. (Whilst I've seen the highlights, they were only of the chances - so my view of his performance could yet change)

The wrong offside call was the linesman's decision, so no blame to Marriner there.

Stephens I thought was a goner. Like I say, one viewing only, but it looked like a nailed on red to me. At with the scoreline at 0-2, a red card for us would have killed the final. It might not be in the laws of the game, but my take was that Marriner chose to keep Jack on the pitch so that the final could remain a spectacle. And then in turn in the second half, Lingard was let off from what I thought was a nailed on second yellow card for a pullback - which my take was Marriner saying that because I kept Stephens on the pitch, I'll do the same with Lingard.

 

Have to say i think Fraser was at fault for the free kick as his wall placement was wrong and he was to far over resulting him not even getting a hand on the ball, which was'nt in the corner by any means....and he's 6'4" so not getting a hand on it is a mistake in my book

 

Redmond saved Lingard from a certain second yellow by staying on his feet. Good to see, although with the benefit of hindsight it would perhaps have been better to have seen them down to 10.

More generally on Marriner's performance, he was pretty fair but always, always, gave Man U the benefit of the doubt when they went down. Shane Long was cleaned out by Smalling and Bailly and should have had a pen.

 

Absolutely, and we've all got them haven't we - ourselves very much included I'm afraid!! And we did meet a nice one in the pub afterwards to be fair. I've never been hung up on the glory hunter/support your local team issue - not being born and bred in Southampton I'm obviously a bit of a glory hunter myself!! Its the larging it up by some that gets on my wick. Still, it is what it is....

 

http://sportwitness.co.uk/southampton-january-transfer-already-labelled-regret-thats-good-thing/

Italian paper has reportedly said that Napoli could do with a striker like Gabbiadini

 

Big headline on the BBC website "Wrong winner announced". Just for a moment I thought...........

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/jose-mourinho-really-special-one-9926735

Manolo talking about his three goals yesterday, but goes on to show that he fits the 'good lad' criterion that Saints have.