The Man in The Shed

© Robin Jones/Getty Images

30th October – Hopes dashed

My trip to the Bridge was rudely interrupted by illness; prompting my wife’s quick dash to London to hand over 2 tickets to an expectant fellow fan.

Fortunately plan B was to wrap up in a blanket in front of the TV.

So how serious would both managers take this game and how many youngsters would get to play ? 

Well Lampard certainly stuck with the “real” youngsters as James, Guehi and Gilmour started. Only one real rookie appeared in red from the start.

The other real current news was the sad illness of Gianluca Vialli – still fighting cancer (although this appeared to have only been in the public domain for a couple of weeks). Fans at the ground and on social media wishing the great man well.

The game certainly started well with free flowing, fast passing football from the blues. United gradually edging back into it with a bit of bite in the challenges – although the ref. was not slow to show yellow cards.

Then out of nowhere Alonso made a silly mistake trying to get the ball from behind inside the box and it’s a penalty. Despite having missed several penalties in the last few weeks Rashford converted.

Our play remained positive but with no cutting edge in the final third. We had still not troubled their goalkeeper.

Half time. We had played some pretty football but never looked like scoring a goal.

The second half pace picked up. Batshuayi hadn’t had the greatest service but was being bullied by Maguire. Then out of nothing he manages to flick the ball beyond two defenders just inside the United half, runs thirty yards and unleashes an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner. A true goal out of nothing.

All to play for and with no extra time I was already thinking about penalties.

Then Pedro, on for Pulisic, commits a professional foul 35 yards out to break down a United attack. Taking one for the team.

Rashford starts to line up a shot – seriously – and promptly smashed an unstoppable shot into the top corner. The disbelieving looks on the players’ faces (on both sides) said it all.

There was no way back from that and so endeth our Carabao cup adventure.

Probably beaten by a more experienced team but the performances of Guehi and Gilmour were a positive step up in class from Grimsby.

So the winning run is over. Now back to the league.