Penalty Kings - Cup Winners

Manchester United 0 - Tottenham 0
Penalties: Manchester United 4 - Tottenham 1

Team: Foster, Rio, Evans, O'Shea (Vidic 76), Evra, Gibson (Giggs 90), Scholes, Nani, Ronaldo, Welbeck (Anderson 67), Tevez

Don't know about you guys, but it feels strange to win on penalties. It's even stranger that this is the third penalty shoot-out we've won. The first was the Champions League finals against Chelsea, then the curtain-raiser in the Charity Shield against Portsmouth and today in the League Cup finals. This very strange un-United-like behaviour of winning shootouts is making me feel uncomfortable.

After the euphoria of that penalty win against Chelsea, the excitement seems to have dwindled somewhat for me. Don't get me wrong. I'm still thrilled that we've taken another step to sweeping all before us this season, but it just feels that we haven't won this one on merit.

In the opening quarter of the game, we ran Spurs ragged and quite really should have halved and quartered them. But the story of the season continues, we're just simply unable to put opponents away despite dominating the play.

After weathering an early United storm, Spurs gradually grew in confidence and gave a good shout. Aaron Lennon was a constant threat, taking Evra out of the game time and time again. Relief for Evra didn't come until the first half of the extra time that he was taken off injured.

On our part, Ronaldo came closest to settling the finals deep into injury time, but his shot cannoned off the post to end a disappointing cup final.

I have to admit I never liked the lottery of penalty shootouts. It's cruel, meaningless and the better team on the day usually gets the short end of the stick. But with fixture congestions and logistic issues of a replay, it's simply between the devil and the deep blue sea. In today's case, we just about deserved to win it, but credit Spurs for putting up an incredible fight and nearly nicking it themselves.

No one really covered themselves in glory today. A case can be made for Foster who saved a penalty and a good shout for Rio for breaking down most of the Spurs most dangerous plays. Everyone else was just poor. It's a good thing we won it in the end. Fergie's decision not to put Rooney on the bench could have smacked us in the face today, especially since neither Welbeck nor Tevez showed up today.

At least the consolation is that most of our bigger named players would be fresh for the midweek visit to a woeful Newcastle side. I'm not particularly thrilled to face Newcastle in this current state. They are a cornered animal that could really hurt us, especially after all the celebrations winning the Mickey Mouse Cup.