United 1 - 2 Crystal Palace

Amos, 

Rafael(Pogba) Evans Smalling Fabio(Fryers)

Valencia, Gibson Park Diouf 

Macheda, Berba(Morrison)

I never thought United would bow out today

Ah well, we're out of the Carling Cup. Fergie fielded a team that should have had more than enough in its locker room to beat a championship side. However, the players failed to perform once again. Palace's first goal was sublime, Macheda scored a penalty and Palace scored once again in extra time. The Londoners were excellent when defending and their sheer determination to hang on to their lead in extra time was exemplary. Our players had another stinker with Gibson(apparently, I'm the only one who thinks Gibbo did well tonight!) being one of our only players playing well(the others being Smalling and Valencia).

This was a second string side but it wasn't a weak side. Rafael, Evans, Smalling, Fabio, Valencia, Park and Berbatov are all first teamers. We should have strolled past this championship club. Morrison and Pogba failed to live up to the expectations while most of the other players failed to show that they are first team material. Diouf is not Man Utd standard and I highly doubt whether Macheda is. The latter is still quite young but the former won't make it at OT and you can print that. 

With this loss we gave Liverpool and City a bigger chance to win a trophy. One of the two sides will win it, surely neither of the championship sides left can stun a big gun again. We'll have to do much better in the Premier League if we intend to win it and that, including the FA Cup, are our real chance of silverware this season. The standard set by Real Madrid and Barca in the Champions League is beyond us. The last time we bowed out of the Carling Cup at Old Trafford was 4 years ago vs another championship side (Coventry). Since then the side learned  a lesson and won the cup twice. Lets hope this defeat serves our players a lesson while we bear the smirk on most anti United people wishing this is the first step towards our downfall. The Carling Cup is the least important of the four competitions we're in but it's an important competition nonetheless. No excuses, we just failed to perform for the umpteenth time this season. We never die, we'll come back stronger.