What a result! I can’t believe this result, it really is poor. I know the Carling Cup is the least important of cups, but I don’t think we really gave this fixture enough respect. Coventry are only a league below us, they would have been up for it. Ian Dowie would have motivated his players, he would have told them to enjoy playing at Old Trafford, made them think about playing in the Premiership and playing at venues like Old Trafford on a regular basis.

What did we do? We fielded the reserves…. A team where the only real first team player was Nani (based on starts this season), who had no idea what Coventry would be like. You could argue there were other “senior” players in the team, such as John O’Shea, Anderson and arguably Kruzsach (spelling?), but the rest were a long way off being genuine first team contenders, some of them I’ve never even heard of!

What’s worse, all the season ticket holders had to buy a ticket for this game, I’m glad I’m only a member of the club and not a season ticket holder, meaning I can cherry pick the games I want to go to. Admittedly, its also because I live in Bristol and the trip up to Old Trafford takes about 4 hours each way and a tank of petrol, so its not cheap! But if I did have a season ticket and had to go and watch the youngsters lose to Coventry I would have been a little cheesed off.

I don’t see why we couldn’t have fielded a more balanced side with a few more established players in the team. Ok, give the veterans like Giggs, Scholes, Van de Sar a rest. Maybe let Ferdinand and Vidic have a night off, but players like Rooney and Ronaldo would have been chomping at the bit to play. Rooney having just come back from injury and Ronaldo having missed 3 games through suspension would have appreciated another chance to play. I’m sure that Tevez would probably have enjoyed a run out too.

Oh well, I’m sure at the end of the season if we’ve won another treble we’ll all be praising Sir Alex, however, unless we do, I’m going to be demanding Ferguson takes the Carling Cup more seriously, it was after all my favourite lager as a student!