FA CUP INTERNET REPORTS 
-----------------------------Tuesday, February 4th 1997
-----------------------------
After 3 years of Consecutive Final's
UNITED Out of the Cup!WIMBLEDON 1 (0) v 0 (0) MAN UNITED
63 Marcus Gayle
Kick off 15 mins late 20.00 Selhurst sold out Rain all day in London Cole starts, Ole on the bench Ronny back G Neville's 100th start for the REDS 02 Ekoku misses easy header close up! 05 Keane and Irwin tackling back on one man Ekoku Dons have started on fire 08 first corner of the match to UNITED, good atmosphere crowd singing 09 Cantona through, good play saved 10 Neville shoots Sullivan saves! 12 Miss from Andy close up, offside called UNITED good pressure now 14 Cantona pushed off ball as he heads a cross, nothing given, penalty?? 16 Beckham Giggs Cantona Cole involved good play 17 Keane tracks back a defending powerhouse ALL UNITED NOW, THE CROWD NOISE IS DEAFENING 22 shot by Cole over the bar 26 Giggs through on he wing, fouled still get's cross in 28 Holdsworth shoots for Dons, Schmeichel saves 29 miss by Leonhardsen 5 yds out! 30 Beckham shoots deflected past post 30 Schmeichel saves one to one with Ekoku 35 Beckham brilliant cross to Giggs, tackled 37 Johnson back to Schmikes 40 Keane through on his own 20 yd blaster saved Corners 1-5 to UNITED 41 fast move Cantona Giggs Keane Cantona heads down just wide! Mick Jagger in the crowd tonight! (Dons supporter?) 45 Vinni booked, bad foul on Beckham, free kick Giggs over the bar. possesion Wim 49% MU 51% HALF TIME 0-0 Still heavy rain 47 Porborsky blasts through tackled 49 Vinni long throw straight to Schmikes 50 Neville yellow card for shoulder block, offence?? 51 Giggs long shot just wide 52 Schmeichel out to Beckham 50 yd run + long shot JUST over the bar! 53 Holdsworth header across face of goal Both teams really going for it now 55 Cantona cross Giggs header on target saved 58 3 new corner's UNITED pressure corners now 1-10! 59 Palli header from corner tremendous save 61 Still pressure Cantona over bar this this time 15 mins posess 2nd half: UNITEDhalf 19% 41% Donshalf 40% 62 UNITED domination HAS to pay off soon :))) 63 Marcus Gayle header from 6yds out 1-0 to Wimbledon (crazy-gang) 25 mins left we WILL come back! (We need Ole) 66 crowd singing "UNITED UNITED!" 68 Ole warming up and COMES ON for Porborsky 71 Beckham shoots deflected and saved 74 ATTACK Giggs jinks through, passes too far forward 76 Wimbledon corner Dons 3-12 on corners now 77 attack again but Wimbledon defending well 80 Dons block using hands free kick 80 UNITED under pressure Ole Gunnar shoots way high 81 Choccy McClair on for Irwin 83 attack even David Beckham shoots wide from the left! Shots on target Dons 3-9 UNITED 84 Cantona booked for throwing down the ball for an offside decision 85 Eric fired up be careful Eric! 86 Giggs centre Cole header wide 87 more subs on for Dons to waste time 88 ball bouncing in the box still not running for REDS 89 MORE SUBS?? 90 Thats it UNITED go out amazingly after a good performance 91 Corner Schmechel scores!!!! OFFSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!! 93 Pallister brought down in the box NO PENALTY??????? What a fantastic ending, Wimbledon go through, deserved? No way! It is 5 years ago UNITED lost to Sheff United in the cup. UNITED unbeaten run (2 months) comes to an end 14 games! Have a nice day :) Barry.
Team tonight: Schmeichel, Neville G, Johnson, Pallister, Irwin, Porborsky Beckham, Keane, Giggs, Cantona, Cole Subs: McClair Solskjaer Casper
United Powerless Before Gayle ________________________________ Wimbledon 1, Manchester Utd 0
By Martin Thorpe
Soccer: The holders went out of the English FA Cup last night, beaten by a Wimbledon team not unused to causing an upset or two and now looking forward to a home tie with First Division Queen's Park Rangers. And much of the rest of England may well be giving thanks that Marcus Gayle's 64th-minute winner for Wimbledon has prevented a record fourth successive final appearance for United. Of course, this was nominally a home tie for Wimbledon but, with the noisy influx of 20,000 United supporters from all points south, Selhurst Park felt more like a junior Old Trafford. This was the teams' third meeting in 10 days, including United's win in the league land the 1-1 draw which precipitated this replay. United had done well on that day with a side depleted by injuries. Last night their team took on a more familiar appearance, though Andy Cole, making only his second start of the season, was preferred to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer up front as United aimed to preserve their record of not having lost in the FA Cup since the 1995 final. The Premiership leaders were certainly in good form, coming into this game on a run of 14 games undefeated, including seven wins from their nine matches since Christmas. Wimbledon, on the other hand, had not won in their previous three matches, tiredness playing a big part as they entered this, their sixth game in 17 days. However, they approached the tie with typical bravado, drafting in Dean Holdsworth in order to attack United with three up front. The policy kept United's defence more than busy. Holdsworth blasted over from 12 yards, then hit a shot from similar distance at Peter Schmeichel, and Kenny Cunningham saw a low cross buzz the face of the goal without anyone getting a touch. Wimbledon's best chance of the first half was created by Efan Ekoku, who cleverly beat Denis Irwin and was charging in on goal when Schmeichel suddenly appeared to block the shot in typically alert and fearless fashion. United were stuttering as an attacking force, their only decent firsthalf chances saved by Neil Sullivan, first from Gary Neville's shot, then from Roy Keane's 25-yard piledriver. If United wanted to become only the second team to beat Wimbledon at home this season - they were already the first, in the opening game, which featured that David Beckham goal - they needed to find more penetration up front. And who better to get United's pulse racing than Beckham himself, the young England player running at goal on 53 minutes before unleashing a special from 25 yards which dipped inches over. Keane also shot wide and Ryan Giggs at Sullivan before the Wimbledon goalkeeper pulled off a stunning reflex save to deny Gary Pallister's point-blank header. United were really cooking now, with Karel Poborsky at last finding his feet and not those of Wimbledon players, and Eric Cantona, Giggs and Cole also linking well. But just when the visitors were thinking of turning the screw, Wimbledon went ahead. Holdsworth had already headed only inches wide from Vinny Jones's long throw and on 64 minutes Wimbledon's hard man this time fed Cunningham down the right. The full back sized up his options before firing in a perfect cross which swerved tantalisingly away from Schmeichel and, as Pallister and Johnsen watched, landed perfectly on the head of Gayle who, unmarked, thundered the ball in from six yards. United immediately sent on Solskjaer for the hapless Poborsky, playing three up front themselves now as they went in search of the equaliser. It never came and Cantona experienced his first defeat in an FA Cup tie in 15 games. WIMBLEDON: Sullivan, Cunningham, Kimble, Jones, Blackwell,Leonhardsen (McAllister 87), Earle, Ekoku, Holdsworth (Harford 89), Gayle (Goodman 85), Perry. Booked: Jones. Goals: Gayle 63. MANCHESTER UTD: Schmeichel, Neville, Irwin (McClair 81), Pallister, Cantona, Cole, Beckham, Giggs, Poborsky (Solskjaer 70), Keane, Johnsen. Subs Not Used: Casper. Booked: Cantona, Johnsen. Attendance: 25,601. Referee: G Poll (Tring).
Dons' Gayle force blows United away _________________________________ FA Cup Fourth round replay from Selhurst Park __________________________________ Wimbledon .... 1 Manchester Utd .... 0 _________________________________
MARCUS GAYLE ended Manchester United's Wembley stranglehold and wrecked their Double dream with a second-half header. The born-again Christian has been a revelation for Joe Kinnear's men this term, his form alongside Efan Ekoku a major factor in the Dons' triple glory challenge. But nothing the 26-year-old has done has been as significant as the 64th minute header that gave him his 11th goal of the season and handed Eric Cantona his first FA Cup defeat in 16 outings. United, who had comfortably defended Vinnie Jones' long throws into the box all night, were caught napping as the Wimbledon skipper prepared to launch another one from the right. Instead, Jones played it short, took the return to send Kenny Cunningham galloping into space and when the Republic of Ireland full-back centred, Gayle was left all alone to thump his header past Peter Schmeichel. But even then there was a typical Wimbledon ending as Schmeichel came up for an injury-time corner to poke home, only for the effort to be ruled out for offside. Still the drama continued, Jones having to be restrained even after he realised his team had hung on to host QPR in round five. Within seconds, though, Jones was jumping around with his hands in the air. Yet if Gayle was one hero, an even bigger one was Neil Sullivan - for the staggering save from Gary Pallister that kept the Dons on terms as they rocked from United's blistering second-half assault. The Scotland new boy was deservedly cheered to the hilt as the Dons held a public party in Selhurst Park while United made a swift retreat. The Dons almost took the lead in the third minute when Ekoku failed to get more of a touch to Oyvind Leonhardsen's third-minute cross. Cole's blushes after missing from six yards were spared by a linesman's flag and that heralded Wimbledon's best spell of the half. Holdsworth, from a chance created by Ekoku, blasted over and then Leonhardsen just failed to make contact when Ekoku slid in from wide on the right. But the Dons should have taken the lead in the 31st minute. Ekoku did all the work himself, picking the ball up on halfway and running past the retreating Denis Irwin. Ekoku entered the box at pace, but one touch too many proved crucial as Schmeichel raced off his line to block bravely and brilliantly. United countered, Roy Keane forcing a smart save from Sullivan, who then clawed away a Cantona header that might have bounced up and into the top corner. David Beckham was inches away from another Selhurst Park spectacular, running from deep in his own territory before unleashing a thunderbolt that flashed past Sullivan, but inches over the bar before the keeper could move. But move he did, to stunning effect, in the 59th minute. Successive corners had caused all manner of confusion and when Karel Poborsky sent in the third, Pallister was not challenged. The defender's header had the huge United following in the crowd celebrating, but somehow Sullivan sprang to his right to turn the ball aside.
Electronic Telegraph Gayle brings curtain down on United run By Christopher Davies Wimbledon (0) 1 Man Utd (0) 0
THIS time there was no 60-yard lob or a kung-fu kick for the Selhurst Park supporters to talk about. Instead, the minority of the Wimbledon fans among the sell-out 25,601 crowd left celebrating what many saw as the club's greatest achievement since winning the FA Cup final against Liverpool in 1988. A far post header by Marcus Gayle in the 64th minute of a pulsating FA Cup fourth-round replay earned Wimbledon a fifth-round tie against Queens Park Rangers at Selhurst Park on Feb 15. This was the third meeting of the clubs in 11 days. After the initial 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, United beat Wimbledon in the Premiership and while managers often say they would swap Cup glory for League points, the huge smile on Joe Kinnear's face at the end told its own story. It was United's first FA Cup defeat since the 1995 final against Everton and the first in 16 ties Eric Cantona had lost with the Double winners. No praise can be high enough for Wimbledon's performance. It was their sixth match in 17 days and they ended United's dream of becoming the only club to reach four consecutive FA Cup finals. Wimbledon played a 4-3-2-1 diamond formation with Efan Ekoku and Gayle just behind Dean Holdsworth. It almost paid a quick dividend as the home side should have taken the lead after three minutes when Ekoku, running from a midfield position, was wide with a free header. Ekoku is no stranger to goals but Gary Neville has never experienced the joy of scoring for United. However, in the 11th minute the right-back broke three Wimbledon tackles before seeing Neil Sullivan save his shot at the second attempt. Two minutes later Andy Cole should have had the ball in the back of the net from Ryan Giggs's left-wing centre. Sullivan saved Cole's point-blank shot, which was just as well for the United striker who was flagged offside. Wimbledon were giving United as good as they got and almost opened the scoring in the 29th minute when, from Ekoku's cross, Oyvind Leonhardsen was a whisker away from beating Peter Schmeichel with a left-foot effort. Then, after a stirring 50-yard run in which he beat Denis Irwin, Ekoku saw his fiercely struck shot blocked by Schmeichel. Roy Keane brought a similar save from Sullivan after the Republic of Ireland midfielder shot from 30 yards. David Beckham is unlikely to score a more spectacular goal than the lob from the half-way line seen on the opening day of the season. His 53rd minute shot at the same end could hardly have had more power but this time Sullivan was happy to see Beckham's effort go inches over the crossbar. Seven minutes later Sullivan made the save of the night from Gary Pallister's close-range header following Beckham's corner. Wimbledon scored the goal their pressure had threatened in the 64th minute and it exposed flaws in the United defence. It was the sort of goal Wimbledon have scored many times and should have been no surprise to the visitors. Vinnie Jones's throw-in reached Kenny Cunningham and the right-back's centre was firmly headed home by Gayle, unmarked inside the six-yard box. In the second minute of stoppage time there was almost the most remarkable ending. Schmeichel, up for a corner, thought he had scored with an overhead kick but it was disallowed for offside.
"Live" On The Spot
Report from Our Salford Lass:Man U Mailing List
Well friends, I'm feeling a little raw today, to say the least. Yesterday was not a day I will ever remember with any affection. It started off as it ended, wet and miserable. I arrived at Old Trafford early, in the middle of a downpour and spent half-an-hour in the Museum coffee bar watching the tourists coming and going, whilst I waited for the coaches and the son and heir to arrive. 12.00pm found us on coach no.3 as usual, with the usual lads on the back seat to provide us with entertainment for the journey. The journey down to the capital was long, but uneventful. The lads at the back got to reminiscing (sp?) about the "good old days" of terracing, the Stretford End and being chased down Warwick Rd by police horses. This became extremely funny as the stories got more and more imaginative! As we approached London and the traffic started to build up, they passed the time by singing all the old favourite United songs, then reworking the words to include Coronation St characters, people in the surrounding cars etc. The proceedings were livened up still further as we passed a house and saw a semi-naked young woman standing at the lighted window! Requests to go passed again were turned down by the driver, who was determined to be a spoilsport and unfortunately, the son and heir was looking the wrong way at the time! After two hours of sightseeing (included the Thames embankment and various other London tourist spots) we finally arrived at what passes for a football stadium in that part of London. A ridulously small WPC jumped on our bus to remind us not to take bottles, cans, flagpoles etc into the ground and to tell us our bus would probably be parked on the road we were on after the game, but if it wasn't there, it would be somewhere else, possibly round the corner!! On passing through the turnstiles, we found a "stadium" only marginally better than Filbert St (in my opinion, the worse I have been to - in the Premiership at least). A gloomy tunnel ran the length of the stand, there were four toilets in a subterranean Ladies - all awash with water (I hope it was water!) even before the game had started, and old rusty wooden seats all with blocked views of the pitch. 20 for a shit hole like this, what a bloody cheek. (Sorry about the language, as I said, I'm feeling raw today). It actually looked more comfortable up on the gantry where Andy Gray looked well taken care of. Reds had the whole of one stand (where we were) plus one end and there were also numerous Reds in the stand opposite us, so it was pretty much "taken over" as usual. The atmosphere was noisy and raucous, with the whole stand "standing up for the champions" and lots of chanting and singing, but the atmosphere never really reached the level of Forest or Coventry, mainly because after a while, people started to get frustrated, both by the failure of the team to take control of the game and by the crap refereeing (all I have to do is mention the name Graham Poll and most of you will be able to imagine what the standard of refereeing was like). The first half was pretty even, with neither side really deserving to be in front. We were not playing at our best and Wimbledon had reverted to their old, long-ball game. Nevertheless, it looked like a telling-off from Fergie at half-time should do the business. When the second half started, however, there was a sort of weary inevitability about what happened. We camped in the Wimbledon penalty area, had chance after chance, and through poor finishing got nothing. As Wimbledon broke away, I said to the son and heir "they could just sneak something here, if we don't watch it". A few seconds later, the ball was in the net and that was that. Our players (and fans) got more and more irritable and desperate for the elusive goal and frustration was heaped on frustration, culminating in the wretched disappointment of Schmeichel putting the ball in the net only for it to be offside. We were then subjected to the sight of Vinnie Jones gleefully shaking the hand of Graham Poll (not that I'm inferring anything of course) whilst our lot stalked off the pitch. Whilst trying to stay cheerful (with a chorus of "Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be, we're going to Portugal, que sera, sera) nothing could disguise the disappointment of all the United fans as we pushed our way through the crush in the crowd and set off to find our coach (not an easy task, as it turned out to be "somewhere else" after we went back to the road we came in on!) The players: The defence (again) looked good, with Pally and Neville looking the sharpest (Pally was my man of the match again) and Johnsen looking back to full f itness. Midfield went missing for whole sections of the game, with Keane still looking like he was terrified of being booked. Becks looks under a lot of pressure at the moment, as if he feels that he has to produce something special every time he plays. On one or two occasions he should have made a simple pass but tried for the spectacular. I don't think it's greediness or arrogance, simply a young lad trying to come to terms with very sudden success and everyone else's expectations. Giggs was off form, as was Eric, both of them spraying passes all over the place and seemingly having forgotten where the goal was. Poborsky was OK, Cole was getting into good positions and making some excellent passes, but also seemed to have trouble getting the final finish in. Peter annoyed me for large parts of the game as he has done a lot recently, booting the ball down the pitch to Cole's head - Cole misses 9 out of 10 and the ball goes to a Wimbledon player. I can understand why he does this in the last, frantic minutes, but why does he do it earlier in the game, when he could throw the ball to Neville or Irwin and we could keep possession and build up a move? Having said all that, had he not got himself off-side in the last minute, I would have forgiven him everything! Ole was brought on too late and should have been on from at least the beginning of the second half, Choccy brought some much-needed experience to the midfield but this change entailed putting Becks on the right wing, when he was obviously knackered and incapable of doing himself justice there. Hopefully, the rest over the next couple of weeks, plus some international duty, will sharpen them all up. All of the above criticisms are my own personal opinions which, during the game, I kept to myself. Despite being pretty pissed off with some of the performances on the pitch, I did what all "real" fans should do - I assumed the lads were doing their best and got behind them, as loudly and enthusiastically as I could. Unfortunately, that wasn't true of some of the fans around me. Perhaps I am just unlucky, but I do seem to be attracting a lot of whining, whinging, abusive arseholes lately! Despite the disappointment of the play and the fact we have been dumped out of the FA Cup by a team we should have been able to beat standing on our heads, the most disappointing part of the whole sorry episode was the "performance" of the wankers who surrounded me, who spent the whole game criticising and screaming abuse - never once bothering to join in a chant or to get behind the team in any way. One guy in front of me even sat down and started reading his programme after Wimbledon scored, because he said he was disgusted at the performance and wasn't prepared to watch such rubbish! Every player came in for some treatment, with Giggs, Beckham and Poborsky getting the worst of it (although in other parts of the ground I believe Cole was the main target). Even Fergie got told he was a load of rubbish and a useless manager! I came out of the ground totally disgusted (yet again) by what I had seen and heard. Once back on the bus, I realised that mine wasn't an isolated experience. All over the ground, fans had been giving this sort of abuse to the players and this must contribute to the difficulties players face when they are not playing as well as they could. What does it do to a young player like Beckham to be idolised one minute and sneered at the next? It was a very long and miserable journey home. We were all deflated and tired and generally pissed off - as I've said before, much more by the behaviour of our own fans, than by being knocked out of the FA Cup. It felt much worse than the stuffing we got at St James' Park because, after that game, I had been proud of being a Red and of the way our support had behaved and taken the defeat. This time, I just felt angry, disillusioned and disappointed. I've nothing in common with these arseholes and I wish they would all sod off to support someone else and leave Man Utd to the fans who really care! Today I'm still feeling let down (only having 4 hours sleep doesn't help) but am starting to get things back into perspective a little. I was cheered up immensely this morning when my Porto tickets arrived. Having sent a begging letter to the ticket office, explaining how much I wanted to get out of the second tier and reminded them of the cock-ups they have made with our relocations for FA Cup games, they have sent us two tickets for East Lower. All together now, "Linda's coming home, she's coming, Linda's coming home"! I've also spent a great deal of time today thinking about Munich and remembering that 39 years ago today, the Babes played their last game in Belgrade. Tomorrow, at around 3.00pm, I will be doing what I always do on Feb 6th, I will be thinking about the people who died and paying my respects to them in my own way. It will be good this year to know that I have friends all over the world who will be doing the same thing.Man United will never die Keep the faith, Linda
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Greetings to Manchester United Supporters "All Over The World".
"When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think that sardines will be thrown into the sea"
Eric Cantona :31.03.95
