Andrew, after your big faux pas over Tim Cahill's Guus Hiddink comments, are you really sure you want me to publish this?

Thats bullshit, if you look at the team he put out ? ok, it wasn't the strongest but he combined experience with youth, Macheda has scored twice in two Prem games so he's said, "OK now, prove just how good you are." He didn't but I can see why he gave that team a chance, he thought he had enough back up and experience on the bench to call on if things didn't go his way.

There was only one bloke on the pitch who I hadn't really heard of and that was Gibson but he wasn't exactly shit, most of them players would walk in to any Premier league team. It backfired basically and we won ? end of story. Mate, just enjoy it and look forward to the Final, why do you want to look at all the negative points? I just dont get some fans.

Rather than doing us a disservice, it was a compliment. Playing us with a full strengh side would have affected their form in the league. Their choice, remember everyone says Everton is ALWAYS a hard game ? couple that with their midweek games (gone and coming), the size and the state of the Wembley pitch... they made their choices.

Well, firstly, whatever we think of Fergie he is definitely not stupid. I am sure he will have remembered the game at Goodison this year when his side (a strong side as I recall) were lucky to come away with a draw. While we didn?t play well at Old Trafford, they never looked like getting a chance in open play and only a pretty iffy penalty beat us. Therefore he would not have taken us lightly.

What he did was set his priorities and decided that for his club the FA Cup was third after the CL and the Premier League. That?s what the ?top bosses? (sic) do nowadays and if it backfires on them tough shit.

Nevertheless, he didn?t exactly put out a bunch of kids did he? He had his two best centre-backs out whose recent absence is what he says has caused their dip in form recently. Does that sound like taking us likely?

He had lots of talent on the bench and used it after (in my view) we more than edged the first half. If Rooney was missing for them... well, Arteta was missing for us. If Ronaldo was missing for them, then Yakubu was missing for us. We also had a cup-tied Jo to contend with and our starting striker has been laid up for a week and clearly wasn?t fit. To fix that we brought a kid of our own on and moved Cahill up front and brought Vaughan on, another kid, for his first senior game for yonks after a long injury.

So I am not sorry for Fergie?s woes and do not accept he took us lightly, we have enough woes of our own but, despite them, we beat the world champions yesterday and with the possible exception of Neville and Saha, we did it in the biggest game and on the biggest stage that any of our lads have ever experienced. While I am sure they were proud, it must have been a bit scary too!

Well done Blues, I am very very proud of the lot of you, as I am with the support at Wembley yesterday, which was a joy to behold.

This is getting tedious now.

Sweeping statements, zero objectivity.

I don’t want to be unduly harsh, but can we not just enjoy the fact that today is a good day?

In the words of Ferris Bueller - "Life moves pretty fast; if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you just might miss it."

I?m finding it very difficult to agree with anything you write Anthony. Utd would?ve put out the same team regardless of who they played against, so it's not an insult to Everton. I personally think most experienced managers would?ve done similar, and you have to accept the reality that the FA Cup was always their 3rd priority (4th if you count World Club Comp).

I?m still on Cloud 9 and will be for a long while... why don?t you stop moaning and come up here!

Personally, I think it was a clever psychological tactic from Alex Ferguson to play some of his youngsters. If we?d lost, many people would have said that Everton couldn?t even beat Man Utd?s reserve team.

However, we didn?t and I reckon it?s good for football that Manure won?t achieve a quintuple. Total domination by the so-called big 4 is surely not something that the majority would prefer, however much the media drool over them most of the time.

Just a small detail in passing. Why was the match called: Manchester Utd v Everton and not alpabetically like the other fixtures?

Actually it seems to me that Riley didn?t do SUCH a bad job, although why a number of corners were not given to Everton will remain a mystery....

Anyway, it WAS a good day and I enjoyed it, although it didn?t improve my heart condition!

Bloody hell, I cannot keep up with some of the absurdities in free flow after the match.

Though obviously not their strongest side they had Vidic and Ferdinand in central defence. Rafael on the right has performed very well this season. His brother on the left was certainly a reserve choice.

Foster has done well for them in the domestic cups, and was the hero in the League Cup Final.

Park has been first choice in many of their biggest games, and I was quite relieved when he was pulled off. Their midfield was somewhat soft, and I was equally glad to see Anderson kept on the pitch.

Tevez is class, and Macheda has been waving the magic wand about the past couple of games. Rooney was injured, and Berbatov was brought on later.

So not the worst team Ferguson could have put out. No Ronaldo was certainly a boon for us.

Bottom line is Man Utd has been wobbling all over the place in the final stage of the season, and the FA Cup places a very distant third in United’s priorities. Ferguson still rues the title he lost to Blackburn in 95 and despite all his success brings up this failure quite often. Given his fractious relationship with Benitez his worst nightmare would be for Liverpool to pip them at the post after all looked done and dusted 2-3 weeks ago.

Also, Ferguson in no way has disrespected us. He has gone out of the way to mention our dominance in the 60’s and 80’s. Don’t forget for many United fans this was a time before the invention of football in 1992, where records are scant and great teams of the past exist mainly as tales and rumours whispered quietly lest Sky hear of such heresies. And crucially, note how Ferguson, with regard to the Riley/Man Utd fan issue, said things were "whispered in Moyes’ ear," and did not blame or insult DM directly.

Ferguson gambled a little and lost, but it will not matter a groat if they win the League, CL, or both, and that battle begins anew with Portsmouth in only 3 days time.

I applaud his confidence in his kids, I also applaud himself guarding against a loss through fatigue when they play Portsmouth.

We go to the final, they stop the shite winning the league... perfect all round.

Nick Entwistle,

Spot on! At least in the Prem I’ll be rooting for Man U, for the rest of the season that is. Can’t have the RS usurping our glory again can we?

Here’s a tip for you Anthony, stop posting when you are pissed.

Jesus Fucking Christ!!

Anthony, Anthony, Anthony.... please cut the cable off the keyboard to save yourself the embarrassment!!!

In your last submission you’re slating Cahill and in this one you’re asking Judas Rooney to come home. You need help.

Please tell me that you’re: -
1 - joking
2 - a redshite/manc
3 - pissed/stoned/etc
4 - all of the above

Anthony, Manchester United?s team was far from weak and capable of beating most of the Premier League!

Macheda, Wellbeck, Gibson Rafael, and Evans are bang on form and enjoying a great season. They are future Premier League stars cutting their teeth with the world champions. Any of them would get into our first team and possibly starting 11!

Scholes, Tevez, Berbatov and Evra have been immense in the Champions League but were contained for 120 minutes by our boys.

We delivered yesterday... enjoy it!

One question....have you ever heard an Evertonian refer to Benitez as ?Rafa?? Thought not.

Anthony I know your heart’s in the right place but have you forgotten how we had a murderously low summer. How we fought relegation for years even struggled to get a team kit sponsor. Celebrated the signings of substandard players and watched as our seasons ended in January. Then yesterday we witnessed an Everton team fight for us as hard as any in our history to realise an impossible dream. There will always be a time for criticism and dissenting views, but for now mate... just enjoy it... they did good!

I don?t see how Fergie took a chance against us giving the fact that it was a tight game and only two piss poor penalties by them (I know Tiny had one as well) helped us on our way. We did not play well today, especially in midfield, where Fella looks like he is carrying a serious back injury and Osman did not get started but, saying that, the two players who missed penalties for Man U cost alot more than our team.

Already I have had conversations with many a United fan about them fielding a 'weaker' side and it is doing my head in. Since I got back from London last night, I have only heard about Alex Ferguson and his team selection and I have heard very little in terms of giving us the respect we deserve.

Did David Moyes field his strongest side? No! He couldn't field his strongest side as some of his top players were either injured or cup tied. We were missing Yakubu, Arteta, and to a lesser extent Anichebe. We also suffered from Saha having a lack of fitness due to illness all week and our only other forward was way short of match fitness. Our players have also been playing every minute of every game recently and have no one to come in for them with a fresh mindset.

If anything what Man United did yesterday was a luxury more than a sacrifice. They are able to field real quality whatever team they play and some of them players on that pitch today are going to go onto great things. Not to mention that the team that featured for United yesterday still cost a lot more than our side.

One final point and I think that this was very telling in our performance for most of the game was almost a great move by Sir Alex. Everton will have been preparing all week for been the underdogs, as we all were. Then when they got news of the United side yesterday they will thought, "Wait, we're the favorites." Suddenly the pressure was on us and it was something we had not seen coming.

So whatever you hear in the following weeks, that was a tough game. We deserved our win and long may people keep disrespecting us. We have had the toughest route to the final but that's the way we like it, isn't it?

Anthony - Either you were still hammered at the time of posting this or you had come down hard!! In fact, after reading your previous post about Cahill I’m beginning to wonder whether this was some ill conceived "it sounded funny at the time" type joke. Well laugh it up chump cos you’ll be the only one.

As many have pointed out, the side wasn’t that weak and he would’ve played that side whoever he was facing. It is, at worst, an insult to the FA Cup not Everton, but I think you have to concede that it would be sickening for SAF and Manure (and me) to lose the title to the RS because he put too much emphasis on getting to the FA Cup final!

I also agree with Lewis above. When I saw the team selection I was actually concerned that it might dampen the fire in our belly. If he fields his very best eleven then there would be no motivation issues at all. As it was (and this is just a theory not fact) maybe we did suddenly feel a bit out of sorts suddenly not being the overwhelming underdogs that we were expecting to be. Just a thought, but psychology is a huge part of these big games.

Anyway, all of the above musing does not change the fact that I think you are talking crap Anthony.

I stopped reading your message when I got to "If I were a regular Man U follower and had paid the money to go to Wembley today, obviously I would have been upset at the final outcome, but I would have lost all respect for the Manager..."
I think if you were a Man United fan, it might take slightly more than today ? it went to penalties! ? to erode all respect for SAF. They narrowly lost to a team that really excelled itself, and none of the ManUre fans have much of a problem with it. It?s football; it happens.
So if you spout crap, you can?t blame people for treating it as such.

Alex Ferguson devalued the competition, not the opposition. He would have feilded that side against Arsenal.

I don't know about the rest of you but I am starting to get a bit annoyed about this... it was only Man Utd's reserves bollocks.

In my opinion, if you actual consider the facts, it was far from the case:

Foster - England keeper a few weeks ago and should possibly be in the team ahead of Van Der Sar anyway.

Rafael Da Silva - has been Man U's first choice right back all season because of Neville and Brown being injured.

Ferdinand/Vidic - regarded as the best central defence pairing in the league, say no more.

The Other Da Silva Kid - fair enought, inexperienced and young.

Park - South Korea captain who has played at the highest level (Champions League Semi's) for both Man U and PSV.

Anderson - £18 million Brazilian, who I don't rate but he is far from inexperienced, particularly as he played in the Champions League final last year.

Gibson - perhaps inexperienced, but still a great talent.

Welbeck - again, perhaps inexperienced, but still a great talent and their MOM in my opinon.

Tevez - £30 million world class striker.

Macheda - they aint shut up about him all week and I though he played well.

Plus Berbatov, Evra and Scholes all came on. Wish we had that at our disposal.

In my opinion, the only noteable players missing were Ronaldo, Rooney and Carrick. Nani is overrated, Giggs is class but past it and rarely lasts 90 mins anyway and the others (i.e. Fletcher, O'Shea) are only bit part players anyway.

We were without our best player (Arteta) and last seasons leading scorer (Yak), plus Valente, Anichebe, Jo and we had an unfit Yobo on the bench.

We beat a great team, littered with experience and skill and without some of our most influential players.

As usual, the press like to focus on the supposed problems/failings of the Big 4 instead of the excellent achievement made by an understrength growing young team.