You Can’t Win ‘Em All!

By: Wayne Farry | April 20th, 2009

That’s my main reaction to this. I’ve had a day to digest it and that’s how I feel.

As I watched the penalty shootout preparations I had a feeling in my gut that we weren’t going to win it. From how the match had gone, and the players that we had on the pitch (from a penalty-taking perspective), I just didn’t have a good feeling.

It wasn’t a bad match for us, or Everton. It was very even and in a way, neither side deserved to concede or score during the course of the match. Both sides had some chances, Macheda and Welbeck linked up very well and created some nice opportunities which just couldn’t be put away. Welbeck was (at least I thought) fouled by Jagielka in the box during the second half but it was one of those incidents that can go either way, and this time it went the Toffees’ way. Everton, to their credit, looked like they really thought they could win it. They attacked as much as United did and had some good opportunities, with a slightly shaky Ben Foster saving on more than one occasion.

The game passed from normal time to extra-time and from extra-time to penalties. When Tim Cahill stepped up and missed Everton’s first penalty the feeling of inevitable defeat in my stomach subsided briefly, but returned even faster after Berba’s awful attempt, an attempt which to me epitomizes his time at United so far. Everton scored the remainder of their penalties with the Jag converting the killer penalty. Tim Howard was the hero for Everton, saving from Rio and Berba (useless bastard).

But, as I said, you can’t win ‘em all! We have had good luck in penalty shootouts in recent times, with the Champions League Final and the Carling Cup Final especially coming to mind.

So we’re out of the FA Cup at the Semi-Final stage, and the ‘dreams’ of a clean sweep are over, even though strictly speaking the clean sweep ‘dreams’ ended in Monaco against Zenit.

I’m quite philosophical about this defeat. It was an even game against a good team who worked hard and deserve their overdue success. So I’m not disappointed, I’m not annoyed about the starting XI as I believe that these young players will only grow stronger from their experience at Wembley. We lost the Semi-Final, and now we must forget about it and focus on the Pompey match on Wednesday.

Hopefully Arsenal can do us a favour on Tuesday against Liverpool, but let’s concentrate on us, not them. So congrats to Everton, who I wish the best of luck in the FA Cup Final against Chelsea.

Also, congrats to our young players, I’m talking about Welbeck, Rafael, Gibson and co. for reaching the Semi-Final of this great cup competition and working hard for the team, and in my view, doing us proud. Now, bring on Pompey!