Manchester United’s youngsters showed why Sir Alex Ferguson rates them so highly by brushing aside Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 at Old Trafford last night to reach the Carling Cup semi-finals.
Darron Gibson, the Ireland midfield player, scored two stunning goals to ensure a strong Spurs team suffered more misery at the hands of United in the competition after they were beaten on penalties in the final last season.
Ferguson had backed Gibson and company to emulate the success of David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers after reacting angrily to criticism of his young players in the wake of the 1-0 Champions League defeat at home to Besiktas last week. On this evidence, the United manager’s bold prediction may carry some weight.
Danny Welbeck impressed up front for the holders, Ritchie de Laet looked assured at left back and Anderson was a commanding presence in midfield. But it was Gibson who stole the show with his fourth and fifth United goals in only his twelfth start for the club.
Ferguson, who questioned last week whether he could continue to “hold back” Gibson for much longer, believes that the 22-year-old could start to provide the goal threat from midfield that United have lacked since Scholes was in his pomp.
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“He’s the one player now at our club who can get a goal for us outside the box,” the United manager said. “He has tremendous power in his shooting and his second goal in particular was fantastic.
“To me, the two stars tonight were Gibson and Anderson. They did very well. Anderson started to impose himself in the second half. He’s very quick and powerful and when he does that he’s a handful.
“I think they [the young players] are gaining playing in these matches, they’re definitely getting better. I thought they did very well.”
Both of Gibson’s goals were expert finishes from outside the penalty area. “It’s probably one of my most special nights in a United shirt, scoring twice,” he said. “I think it was a good team performance after the disappointment of losing last week [against Besiktas]. Sometimes you have bad days, but today was a good day and we showed what we can do.”
Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, spoke to the television cameras but was too angry with his team’s performance to attend the post-match press conference.
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“He’s very disappointed,” Kevin Bond, Redknapp’s assistant, said. “He might say something he regrets, so he sent me. You would never have known looking at us that it was the quarter-final of a major cup competition. I felt the longer the game went, the worse we got.”
Redknapp said: “It was like a practice match. It just never got going, nothing happened. There wasn’t a tackle in the first half.”
Also through are Aston Villa, with Stewart Downing, their £12 million winger, marking his full debut with the third goal in a 4-2 victory over Portsmouth at Fratton Park.
“Downing was fantastic,” Martin O’Neill, the Villa manager, said. “He’s not fully fit yet, but I was delighted with him. He can play, he’s got a turn of pace and he’ll be a proper asset.
“We spent money on a player who wasn’t going to be fit for a few months, but tonight’s performance suggests it was worth the wait.”
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Hoping to join United and Villa in the last four are Manchester City. Mark Hughes’s team face Arsenal at the City of Manchester Stadium this evening with the game having assumed huge importance after a run of seven successive draws in the Barclays Premier League that has piled pressure on the manager.
“They [the owners] are frustrated that these draws have not been turned into wins,” Hughes said. “At the moment we have allowed ourselves, or given others the opportunity, to question where we are going.”