FA Cup - Southampton no match for United

Eurosport - Mon, 05 Jan 09:38:00 2009

Two controversial goals saw Manchester United ease to a comfortable 3-0 victory at 10-man Southampton to book a fourth-round place in the FA Cup.

FOOTBALL; Danny Wellbeck celebrates scoring for Manchester United against Southampton, Jan 2009 - 0

Youngster Danny Wellbeck headed home from an offside position to open the scoring in the 19th minute, with Nani firing home from the penalty spot just after half-time when referee Mike Riley wrongly ruled a free-kick had hit a defender's raised arm in the wall.

Youngster Darron Gibson fired home a third to seal the victory in the final minutes.

Despite the controversial nature of the opening two goals, Southampton could hardly complain about the result as they were comprehensively out-played throughout, United's task made even easier by the 37th-minute sending off of Matt Paterson.

United, who could afford to be without Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, began to impose themselves on the Championship side after a tepid opening, with Dimitar Berbatov particularly threatening in possession in the final third.

The Bulgarian had already provided half-openings for Ryan Giggs and Nani before United made the breakthrough.

Nani's corner was headed against the crossbar by John O'Shea and Wellbeck - who replays later showed to be in an offside position - had the simple task of nodding home the rebound from point blank range.

United should have been two ahead in the 26th minute when Berbatov and Michael Carrick carved open the Saints back four. Carrick ran on to lift the ball over the advancing Kelvin Davis but, with the goal at his mercy, Southampton defender Chris Perry produced a fine tackle to deny the England midfielder.

Southampton's task was made much harder in the 35th minute when Paterson was sent off by referee Riley for an ugly, studs-up lunge on United defender Nemanja Vidic.

Wellbeck almost snatched a second at the near post in first-half stoppage time but Davis once again reacted well to tip the ball around the post.

Just four minutes after the break, United did double their lead, although the goal was again surrounded by controversy as Southampton hotly disputed the handball decision given against David McGoldrick as he jumped in the defensive wall to block Nani's free-kick.

Referee Riley had no doubt that the ball struck the Saints man's elbow - despite replays showing the ball striking his head - and pointed to the spot.

Nani cooly stroked the penalty in to the bottom right to make it 2-0.

Southampton's Ryan Smith burst into the penalty area after robbing O'Shea in the 53rd minute as the home side looked for an unlikely way back into the match, but his left-foot shot was wide of the target when faced only with goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Sar.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson sent Wayne Rooney on to liven up the final twenty minutes, with the match threatening to drift aimlessly.

And Rooney set up United's third for fellow sub Gibson, the England man breaking into the box down the left before flicking a superb pass into the middle for the youngster to volley home from eight yards.

Alex Sharratt / Eurosport

Comment 129 - 148 of 148

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  1. I wish gaynaldo gets fuuucked by sever injury puts him on a wheel cheer
    Nice comment Wissam

    From Domistic, on Mon 5 Jan 8:39PM

  2. can everyone please report coment 153

    From mike k, on Mon 5 Jan 3:18PM

  3. nr.152 just win the premiership once for f..k sake u c..t and then u will be at the same level as blackburn,
    united 10
    liverpool still 0

    From DELPHINE R, on Mon 5 Jan 2:24PM

  4. That's why we sing whooooo the fuuuuuuuuuuck are manutd!!
    10 men and from lower league and they yet won by controversial goals

    From Domistiic, on Mon 5 Jan 1:59PM

  5. The refree was on the spot in his decisions. You just cant wait for players to have their legs broken to send off the offenders. And from what I saw, and I aint blind, the ball clearly hit the hand of the defender in the wall which he had raised waqy above where it should naturally be. In any case United out played Southamptom thru so accept the invinciability of United and no excuses. Anon.

    From James, on Mon 5 Jan 12:10PM

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    From , on Mon 5 Jan 12:08PM

  7. Well said mike k , lets get rid off these @#$%~~~~s from this site , if everyone reports them for abuse then yahoo will have to block them !

    From petersheridan45, on Mon 5 Jan 11:46AM

  8. If people care to ask i am not just a football ref with no experience ..i have acuatly played at proffesional level before coming a referee all of 20 years of playing at all levels and ihave been extensively trained to a high standard and the standard of Mr Riley was of a level 8 Referee and that is bad.
    Note : 1 foot raised is not a sending off its a yellow it was a reckless incident ..i am not defending the lad but its in the laws of the game.If he went in and broke Vidic's leg in a 2 footed lunge then it is a red...
    For the offside ..if the ref could not see it were was he in china...
    I am not trying to prove myself to anyone ..if people care to look at the incidents more closely then you will find out i am right and so was the Saints manager.

    From elliotbond, on Mon 5 Jan 11:44AM

  9. will everyone start reporting these comments by wissam and loveland! the sooner we claim back these discussion sites for people who want to talk about football the better! and come on people lets stop all this hate and abuse! lets have a laugh and joke at each others teams if we must

    From mike k, on Mon 5 Jan 11:40AM

  10. It is perfectly true there is a bias in favour of the big clubs ; 2 seasons ago remember the dodgy handball against Boateng (Middlesboro) and Gareth Southgates comment "..you don't get those decisions against the bigger sides..".Referring to another incident TV pundit Andy Townsend agreed stating " its always been that way .." (funny how the camera was cut immediately after that comment !!) I am not saying the referees do this deliberately, it is just that the marginal decisions always seem to go in favour of the big clubs.Take for instance St'Ledgers (correctly by the way) disallowed goal against Liverpool - compare with the two goals scored by Liverpool against Hull in the league match .Phil Browns comments that the officials were ball-watching is telling. I maintain that when a lesser side scores against the big clubs officials are hawk-eyed trying to find a reason to disallow it ,whereas when the big clubs score they are not so vigilant and hence miss the marginal decisions.

    From KEITH D, on Mon 5 Jan 10:43AM

  11. Even if you play your heart out against Manchester United or some similar side, you shall lose one way or another, and this is exactly why I ask myself, why even play them at all. Opposing teams might as well just give them the game and save their breath.

    From sappercommando25, on Mon 5 Jan 9:36AM

  12. How strange that when dubious decisions go Man Utd's way we here nothing from Ferguson about United being cheated. I wonder how he would have reacted if he was on the receiving end of two terrible decisions which cost his team the match? Get real Ferguson there is no conspiracy against Man U, these decisions even out over the season so just shut up and go back to your bottle.

    From Allen H, on Mon 5 Jan 9:35AM

  13. It is another form of proof that Manchester United have a 12th man in the squad and this is always something that astonishes me. Manchester United was going to win in any case and are one of the hardest to beat in any match, so why are referees going out of their way to make sure that Manchester United win their matches. This only further convinces me that Fergie has certain referees on the books. That is exactly what really stinks in the game, that referees are seemingly bribed into fixing matches which would be in any case, foregone conclusions without all the manipulation of matches.

    From sappercommando25, on Mon 5 Jan 9:34AM

  14. wissam is a psycho. dont blame him, he is mentally derailed. want a plane crash again, ehn? it would be yours and not MAN U!

    From Samuel, on Mon 5 Jan 9:25AM

  15. with or wihtout the two contraversial goals, man u would still still take the day, big is big, nothing less than that. the oponents were out played no matter what mistakes made by riley. finally in this planet everyone has enemies and frineds, so save your curses for your team and leave our praises for amn u.

    From obwalet, on Mon 5 Jan 9:21AM

  16. ManU deserved to win the game. It was just a matter of when, not if, they would score goals. The Saints were soundly out played; all they relied on was kicking ManU players. ManU in fact could have scored more than 10 goals had they not been so wasteful infront of goal. I do not think the referee favoured ManU.

    From bdroti2000, on Mon 5 Jan 8:59AM

  17. Please dont get mad with a useless comment from WISSAM, he is just a pure IMBECILE or what you called simply "MORON". Sane people always find ways to understand dysfunctioning mind individual like "WISSAM".

    From boyet_portunova0816, on Mon 5 Jan 8:59AM

  18. To all of you who are appalled by Wissam, please report it under the abuse thing.

    From taff, on Mon 5 Jan 8:59AM

  19. Maybe someone should document the impact of bias officiating in favour of Manchester United over the years and it will be clear that referees are doing great injustice to other teams in English football.I do not agree they are often unintended errors otherwise the errors will even out as they often say. ManU is no doubt a great team with a great Manager. But their greatness should not be tainted by blantant injustice constantly being meted to other teams by English referees. TUNDEBAJ

    From tunde, on Mon 5 Jan 8:58AM

  20. Maybe someone should document the impact of bias officiating in favour of Manchester United over the years and it will be clear that referees are doing great injustice to other teams in English football.I do not agree they are often unintended errors otherwise the errors will even out as they often say. ManU is no doubt a great team with a great Manager. But their greatness should not be tainted by blantant injustice constantly being meted to other teams by English referees. TUNDEBAJ

    From tunde, on Mon 5 Jan 8:39AM
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