Match Report (LC): United 0-2 Coventry
GOALS: Mifsud (2)
Guardian:
Sir Alex Ferguson has chanced his luck with weakened teams in the Carling Cup before and emerged unscathed, but Coventry City’s “Mosquito” left him feeling the painful consequences of his latest first-team tinkering as Iain Dowie’s team claimed the scalp of the Premier League champions with two goals from their Maltese forward, Michael Mifsud.
Mifsud, nicknamed Mosquito by the Coventry assistant manager, Tim Flowers, for his frenetic style of play, scored a goal in either half as Ferguson’s collection of youngsters and fringe players fell victim to lower-league opposition at Old Trafford for the first time since York City triumphed 3-0 at the ground in the same competition 12 years ago.
Ferguson made no excuses. “I’m flabbergasted by our performance,” he said. “It is a big shock for us all. These are young players that we have great hope for and we have trumpeted them in a loud way.
“You hope that the young players will look at it and want to improve themselves. Their temperament - against a team who were ready for a cup tie - was certainly an issue in the first half, so maybe they are not used to that kind of cup-tie football.
“But we will keep giving youngsters their chances. We have been doing it for years now and these players have to have games.”
With the Carling Cup lying a distant fourth in United’s list of priorities this season, it was hardly surprising that Ferguson opted to use this game as an opportunity to hand playing time to those fringe players and youngsters unlikely to come close to Premier League or European action.
Jonny Evans and Danny Simpson were both handed full debuts, while Gerard Piqué, Lee Martin and Dong Fangzhuo were also called upon to prove their credentials. But although Coventry warmed up for this encounter with a 4-1 Championship defeat at Ipswich at the weekend, Dowie’s team possessed enough experience and quality to embarrass the 2006 winners.
United’s kids may ultimately have the potential to enjoy long and successful careers at Old Trafford, but the same was said of the team that Ferguson sent out against non-league Exeter in the FA Cup third round almost three years ago and that tie ended in a humiliating 0-0 draw which as good as ended the United careers of David Bellion and Eric Djemba-Djemba.
Dowie said: “Not seeing players like [Wayne] Rooney, [Rio] Ferdinand, [Paul] Scholes and [Nemanja] Vidic on the team-sheet is a benefit. To talk about players that weren’t here, though, would be a travesty for Coventry City.”
Against United’s unproven players, the shock that Coventry craved was on the cards from the moment that Leon Best put a left-foot strike over the crossbar on 16 minutes. Anderson and Nani seemed lost without their more experienced team-mates and Coventry’s slick approach play also troubled the hapless right-back Phil Bardsley. When Coventry’s opener came, through Mifsud on 27 minutes, it was fully deserved.
Best’s crossfield pass picked out Michael Doyle inside the United penalty area and Doyle hit the ball to the far post, where Mifsud was lurking to turn the ball past the stranded Tomasz Kuszczak.
Mifsud, adulated in his native Malta, almost scored a brilliant second four minutes later when his skilful flick from Robbie Simpson’s cross struck the post.
Coventry might have been expecting United to react immediately and lay siege to the visitors’ goal, but the onslaught never came, unless a pair of long-range efforts from Nani and Fraizer Campbell, plus a scrambled effort by Dong, counts as an onslaught.
It was Dowie’s impressive team that always looked likeliest to add to the scoring and it was Mifsud again who delivered. The 26-year-old, having beaten Piqué down the left, played a one-two with Jay Tabb, before aiming a first-time shot past Kuszczak.
“Mifsud buzzes around and he can be a real pest, but he is so quick sometimes that he can be too quick for himself,” said Dowie. “That can be a problem, but we have worked on his finishing and this will have done him good.”
TEAM:
Kuszczak; Bardsley; Evans (Carrick); Pique; Simpson; Nani; Martin (Campbell); O’Shea; Eagles (Brown) ; Dong; Anderson
REACTION
Guardian: Sir Alex Ferguson admitted last night that he was “flabbergasted” by Manchester United’s third-round exit from the Carling Cup after a dismal 2-0 home defeat against Coventry City.
The United manager changed the entire team from the side that started the Premier League game against Chelsea on Sunday but he still included £34m worth of summer signings in Nani and Anderson and sent on Michael Carrick and Wes Brown in the second half in what proved to be a failed rescue attempt. Instead Coventry’s Michael Mifsud scored in each half to take his side into the fourth round.
“I was absolutely flabbergasted by that performance,” said Ferguson. “I did not expect that at all. I am not interested in giving reasons or mitigating circumstances. It was just a very bad performance.”
After spending the past 18 months hailing his emerging talent, Ferguson could scarcely understand what went so badly wrong. Nani and Anderson were disappointing, as were Chris Eagles and Dong Fangzhou, although the Chinese came closest to scoring for the home side with a header which Coventry’s goalkeeper Andy Marshall pushed wide just before Mifsud scored his second.
“We have trumpeted these young lads a lot, so what happened tonight was a big shock for us all,” admitted Ferguson. “You want to give these boys a chance and we have not had the opportunity to do that. The number of Coventry fans who came made it a real cup-tie atmosphere and maybe that was an issue for some of our players because in the first half, we were second to every ball.”
The Sky Blues’ 11,000-strong travelling supported helped Iain Dowie’s side, who are eighth in the Championship, become the first lower league side to beat United at Old Trafford since York City 12 years ago.
“This will go down as a great night for Coventry,” said Dowie. “We forced United to make their changes early, they had made all their substitutions by 55 minutes. I have been here as a player and a manager and never done that well so hopefully this result will give us all some belief because I feel we deserve it.”
