Crystal Palace stunned Manchester United with an extra-time Carling Cup victory at Old Trafford.
Darren Ambrose put Championship side Palace ahead with a goal-of-the-season contender when he rocketed the ball past Ben Amos and into the top corner from 35 yards after 65 minutes.
But three minutes later, Eagles defender Patrick McCarthy pulled Federico Macheda's shirt in the box and Italian picked himself up to score from the penalty spot.
Neither side could force a winner in normal time, but Glenn Murray headed in Ambrose's free-kick in the first period of extra time.
Love-hate
United's love-hate relationship with the League Cup endured one of it’s miserable and humiliating nights.
Twelve months on from the very day from the 4-0 hammering at West Ham in London the Reds once again suffered humiliation.
United were winners in 2009 and 2010, but those successful Wembley outings were sandwiched between the home defeat to Coventry here in 2007, that awful night at Upton Park a year ago - and now this painful effort against mid-table a Championship side.
United never looked at ease in the match, which had been preceded by an emotional minutes’ for the late Gary Speed.
Sir Alex Ferguson had been at pains to talk up the much-maligned League Cup in the build up to the game and was at it again in the match programme.
Clearly United punters had not bought into his enthusiasm in quite the same way. The controversial cup scheme was abandoned two years back and so Carling Cup tickets are no longer a compulsory purchase in the season package.
And freed of that United fans voted with their feet and it was the lowest Old Trafford attendance since the Carling Cup early rounds in 2005.
The 52,623 crowd even took into account 8,000 pre-sold executive seats that were mostly unoccupied.
The attendance and atmosphere was boosted by 5,000 travelling Palace fans.
Fergie had reminisced about the row that blew up around his selections in the mid-90s when he used the tournament to blood the Class of ’92.
He has continued with that policy largely ever since and possibly the Old Trafford crowd who love to see a home product make his first steps turned up to see how the 2011 FA Youth Cup winners might cope with the promotion.
Bench
But their education was initially confined to the subs bench where six of those who won the youth trophy last season watched their seniors.
There was absolutely nothing in the opening 45 minutes to suggest this was not going to extend into extra time.
The Reds lacked punch and Palace had gone into the quarter final not having scored in the last 485 minutes. It was going to be a long night.
Ravel Morrison had had an eye-catching cameo in the latter stages of the previous round win at Aldershot and the Wythenshawe lad is a prospect who excites those regular watchers of the youth and reserve games as he’s made his way through the Reds ranks.
He came on for Dimitar Berbatov who appeared to damage his ankle on landing in the 23rd minute after an aerial challenge.
A half-hearted attempt at a tackle by Anthony Gardner that seemed to sum up the feeling of the night allowed Antonio Valencia to nick the ball and set off for goal.
Those dreading the extra time were willing the Ecuadorian to finish but he stroked the ball wide.
That finally livened things up and Morrison got his teeth into the job with United’s first shot on target after 54 minutes.
The interval introduction of Morrison was turning into a blessing in disguise as the Mancunian added to his impact with a drive against the legs of Palace ‘keeper Lewis Price.
Old Trafford fans became even more expectant when Morrison was followed into the action by French youngster Paul Pogba.
His first job as a senior at Old Trafford was to witness a stunning opener by Palace’s Darren Ambrose in the 65th minute. A sensational 35-yard bullet out of the blue finally stung United into some goalmouth action and Pogba’s first touch was a reply of equal ferocity from distance that sadly rose late to miss the target.
United had been bitterly annoyed last Saturday with the award of a penalty for Newcastle in the 1-1 Premier League draw but it was something of payback time three minutes after Palace’s opener.
There was a tug on Kiko Macheda’s shirt by McCarthy but Palace would certainly not have expected it to be enough to drag the Italian to the floor.
Referee Chris Foy thought otherwise and Macheda stuck away the spot kick convincingly.
It was just a pity United’s overall game did not match the conviction and quality of the Italian’s spot kick leveler and the youngsters eventually got sucked into the mediocrity surrounding them.
As the game limped into extra time even more empty red seats became obvious as many fans made their way home early probably wishing they’d saved their cash for Christmas.
All they missed in extra time was Palace’s winner as Murray took advantage of non-existent United defending to head home a free kick.
What is your verdict on the action? Have your say.
Comments
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We are closing the gap to Barca for sure.
I know there were disruptions at the airports but the crowd was a total disgrace, as for the performance, what can i say. Nearly as bad as the 1 - 6 horror show.
Bad result- didn't expect anything else when I saw Evans, Diouf, Park, Gibson were playing. Why didn't the expert management team start with Morrison, Pogba etc.
Very embarrassing and disgraceful performances from a few players in red.
Not much more to add other than the time has arrived for SIr Alex to leave the helm for another person. SAF, THANK YOU FOR 25 YEARS....
I was anticipating a great game........was left very disappointed with the 'young'uns'.......
The man is old, tired and completely out of ideas. With team selection (Gibsons; Dioufs) and tactics during the match I fear the worst is yet to come.
Just been asked by the MEN to enter a suffient comment The future
How many more games like this do we have to go through before it finally clicks with the Fergie brigade all this poor football is down to him.
You can see the way we play our coaches are very poor,some of our players are beyond hope they will never be any good we hardly create anything.I hope he took Berbatov off because of injury because he was the only player with a brain playing for United. I did predict this though you can see it coming Fergies great youth policy.Players keep making basic mistakes so who does the training?
Its just one embarrassment after another.
The entire current second tier at United lack ambition, skill and potential. This was poor, poor, poor. A mass clearout is inevitable and necessary.
Absolutely pathetic. Outplayed 100%. What an embarrassment. The downfall is well and truly underway. The only positive is that few paid to watch such dross.
Well done Palace. Fantastic first goal. Deserved win. Good luck in the semi final!
We lost because Palace was better and wanted it more. What will this mean for the 2. string players and the youngsters? Obviously it's not enough to play Morrison/Pogba/Macheda as some shout about. Because, tonight, the least horrible midfielder was Gibson!
The tournament is not important. But this was probably the last chance some players had to prove themselves before beeing assesed.
Sadly how can u win with Evans and Gibson, I feel sorry for you supporters having to PAY to watch poor reserves, and Crystal Palace, wow who are they?
If this is the United future - forget it on this performance. Fergie has more problems than I thought. Macheda was absolute rubbish, Fergie had given this second string the responsibility and they let him and the fans down badly. Well done Palace you deserved it !
Palace deserved the win...simply just not good enough on the night and probably just not good enough overall at the moment...would have expected some of the players slected tonight to grab the opportunity with both hands but instead they just added to the doubts that a lot of people have at the moment regarding the strength of the squad.
wow you guys serious?
A very underwhelming performance to be sure.This was in fact a Championship game because so many of the people who wore the red shirt today are nothing but Championship class.Diouf and Macheda should never ever figure for UTD again at any level.Park and Gibson were poor,as was Smalling for a change.
If the twins cannot string two games together without getting hurt then,no matter how good they are,they should be shipped out permanently.
As I have before,we will not,repeat NOT,win anything this season.
This game also reinforced once again what a stubborn man Ferguson can be;cannot wait for Mourinho to arrive at Old Trafford.
Manchester United squad is robbish. Not many of these players will ever be first-team players. Get rid of these soon: Macheda, Diouf, Gibson. Park and Valencia are not first team players at the moment. Kids (Morrison, Pogba, Fryers) are not yet good enough. Evans is reserve team player, not more. Lots of error passes and no cohesion. Ferguson seems to be losing his touch. Since Queiroz left, we have no tactical knowhow. Phelan is useless as a tactician. What a shame.
What more is it going to take? Getting dumped out of the CL next week to accept that our squad is not good enough.
Instead of blooding the promising youth we have tonight we gave the same ol clangers another opportunity to infuriate us.
Jonny Evans exit should have been sealed in this. In fairness he was playing the offside trap very well all night, pity he didn't inform any of his other 3 defenders.
Diouf wasn't good enough to play for an awful Blackburn team but he takes up a spot out on the wing.
Antonia Valencia read like a Mother Goose Book for 120 minutes.
Ji Sung Park bullied, battered off the ball. Absolutely clueless on it.
Macheda, penatly aside, is terrible. Living off that Villa goal for 2 1/2 years.
Darron Gibson is an Irish Carrick who thinks that by scoring 1 long range effort in 500 attempts gives you a license to shoot on sight and then, to top it all off, show an awful attitude when losing the ball also.
Morrision & Pogba were 2 of our better players when they came on along with Smalling.
A midtable winless in 5 games team comes to Old Trafford and deservedly beats us. Really, what more evidence do you need. A hammering at home by our nearest neighbours? A struggle to get out of the easiest group in the Champions League? Oh no wait. . .
I suppose it's not all bad, we have Carrick, Fletcher & co to look forward to this weekend.
Well. Cup Football, eh?
This game showed exactly why Pogba and Morrison are not yet ready. They did OK, but for all the huffing and puffing after we scored, we didn't really create much.
The biggest criticism you could make was that the selection was probably too cautious and centered around giving players who haven't featured a game. Surely Diouf is on his way in January, and Gibson....if I had a tenner for everytime he ducked in and had a pop, only to miss....
I thought Macheda was decent. Valencia looked OK, good to have Rafael back (now that his brother seems to be heading back to the treatment room).
Sir Alex will be furious at the players for not doing their jobs properly. Still, it's like the defeat to West Ham last year. Useful experience for the youngsters.
Palace were very good. Put their bodies in the line when the going got tough and defended stoutly.
Good kick in the backside for what appears to be a very crucial game at the weekend. More about momentum than anything, really.
Trust the guys to come back strongly.
What a load of rubbish, man city put out a second string side against arsenal that had star quality while we put out ours that wouldn't even win the league 1 championship. Why are we wasting our time with the likes of diouf, macheda, evans, gibson...we shouldve offloaded them ages ago and give pogba, morrison etc a go. this season is close to being a write off, its easy to think that SAF will buy some quality in the summer to close the gap on city but quite frankly he won't because apparently there aren't any better players out there. Damn you glazers for ruining the greatest club in world football.
Ooops!
Remember what a few people on here keep saying week after week after week. Surely the time will come when they have to admit they were wrong? So far this season we have almost screwed up in Europe with one of the easiest groups we have ever taken part in. Luckily hanging on to a 3-3 draw with Basel at Old Trafford. Then getting ripped 6-1 by City at Old Trafford. Scrappy 1-0 wins over the mighty Sunderland and Swansea. Then Benfica came to Old Trafford and toyed with us, and they left with a 2-2 draw, then another draw with Newcastle. And now to top it off we get dumped out of a cup competion by a team who are at the lower end of the championship and hadn't scored a goal in the 5 previous games!!!! It's getting beyond a joke now.
And Fergie thinks there are only 2 or 3 players in the world that can improve the team.On that performance i can name 2 or 3 thousand.Also whats the story with Pogba? Does he want him to leave?Playing Gibson in front of him.I mean,all slagging aside,hes making some very strange decisions.
at least fergie cant use the excuse of playing the youngstars and losing can he? why on earth did he play park,diouf,gibson,evans,berbatov,valencia,and da silva brothers? i thought this was a night for youngstars? even with 9 international we couldnt beat championship team,and people tell me everthing is fine at united,and we dont need to buy any players.
as for the game,i thought only smalling did well out of the experienced players,while likes of valencia,park, and gibson were pretty useless.as for the da silva's,fergie must be mad to start both of them in a match! doesnt he know that they only last about 40minutes before coming of injured?
fergies told us before the how this was the kind of game which will enable him to find the next beckham,why did then field a team full of players who have no chance at all of making it at united?
but hey,what do i know about football? i'm sure there will be plenty here telling me that we dont need to anyone or that our midfield is top notch? i think looking back at that starting 11 proves that maybe even fergie deep down knew this was the only trophy we could actually win?
I know that there are some fans on this board who loathe when we criticize the team's performance or managers selections. Well if you were happy or excited by today's performance then I say Man United is better off having no fans than having fans like you. What an aweful performance, and simply scandalous team selection. STOP DEFENDING THESE CRAP PERFORMANCES AND TEAM SELECTIONS.
Had SAF chosen the young players and they played like that and got the same result I'd have been happy with that since it's part of their development. But to select NONE of the young guns that were being talked about prior to the game and to see that atrocious performance is an absolute disgrace.
And for God sake GET RID OF THE DA SILVA TWINS. They spend more time on the treatment table than on the field, and contribute very little when they are on it. Ditto for Evans. They are standing in the way of good young players who need their chance to show what they have.