Wednesday, 23rd September 2009 – KO: 20:00

Of all the Competitions we have participated in over the years, the League Cup has always been a strange one for us.

Widely viewed from the outside and probably considered from the inside as the lowest of our priorities every season, it hasn’t stopped us from having a fair degree of success in the competition in recent years (three final appearances, two of them as winners in the last six seasons).

This is perhaps partly because Fergie always used to use this competition to give his reserves (then mostly “kids”) a bit of experience and match-time. These days, as the squad has become stronger and stronger, the team he puts out, even when not a recognised “first team” is still strong enough to give most teams in the competition a good run for their money.

What this has meant however is that trying to guess the team Fergie is likely to play is a job in itself (and perhaps provides some of the reason for our success, actually).

Some clues are usually provided by who didn’t play a big part in the most recent game before the Carling Cup fixture.

So, some names that spring immediately to mind are the likes of Kuszczak, Evans, Brown, Neville, Fabio, Gibson, Carrick, Nani, Scholes, Owen and Macheda.

Hardly what you would call a “weak” team but I’m still probably a mile off anyway!

As for Wolves. Well, luxuries such as tinkering wildly with the team are not within their scope at the moment and I think we’ll be seeing a more or less full-strength team put out for this one.

As far as I am aware, they have no real injury concerns going into this one.

They have started their Premier League campaign quite well with seven points from their opening six games and have won a game away from home and managed to keep City down to 1-0 at Eastlands.

All Fergie ever asks for in these cup competitions is a Home tie as he always believes that no matter the team he puts out, they should be winning at home.

The bookies are certainly giving nothing away on the United win here with United being priced at around 1.33.

Personally, I think that is a bit skinny. Wolves will give this one hell of a go and with a United defence that is bound to consist of four players who have hardly played with each other before (if ever) and a goalkeeper who has almost disappeared off the radar as far as first team (or even Reserve) appearances are concerned, there is certainly a chink in the armour there and the slightest wobble from any of them will only encourage Wolves even more.

United should win this but I don’t think it will be as comfortable as those odds suggest.

Wolves are not the most prolific team in the world in terms of goals but they haven’t been conceding many either. As for us, we don’t normally concede too many but what we do up front is still a bit hit and miss. We might score four or we might make hard work of even scoring one.

I am basing this bet on us keeping a clean sheet and winning 2-0 at most.

The bet is going to be 2 points UNDER 2.5 Goals @ 2.25 with VC Bet.

There’s not an awful lot to say about this game… the scoreline pretty much says it all.

I was close with the team though with only Scholes being the name I mentioned not playing. Welbeck started on the left side of midfield.

Danny Welbeck Does Usain Bolt

United came out strongly and looked quite dominant for much of the opening stages without really creating anything in front of goal. If anything, despite our territorial and possession superiority, it was probably Wolves who carved out the better chances.

All was going fairly well really but with such an attacking line-up (especially with Fabio on the left side of defence) there is always the chance of over-committing and this is what happened around the thirtieth minute as Wolves found themselves on a clear break. Fabio tried to get back at the attacking Wolves player but slipped at a crucial stage. Realising that the Wolves player was through on goal Fabio cynically brought the player down with a flailing arm as he hit the deck. As the last defender, the ref had no choice but to send him off.

So, we basically had an hour still to play with just ten men.

Fergie had no choice but to shuffle the pack a bit and Macheda was brought off with De Laet coming on to fill the left side of defence.

I think a note on De Laet is worthwhile here. He looks a very tidy player and most of what he did was clean and efficient and only an attempted shot he made right at the end of the game took the gloss off his performance. It really must go down as one of the worst shots in history and I think he sliced it so badly that it actually finished behind him!

Anyway…

An hour to play, down to ten men and if ever Fergie wanted an excuse to take a dive in this tournament, tonight was the night but there was none of it.

The ten men of United were still more than a match for the eleven of Wolves.

Wes Brown was immense in defence and we can only hope that for the rest of his United career he can stay clear of any major injury problems because he remains a top-notch defender.

The player who seemed to get more of the ball than any other was Nani and this was one his more frustrating performances in that he did everything brilliantly except the most important bits (i.e. the final ball, the shot, the corner etc).

However, I’m not going to dwell on this kind of stuff here. I’m going to skip forward to the goal.

It was, quite frankly, a work of art.

Carrick was in possession just outside the Wolves box and he pinged a ball at Welbeck who controlled it and slipped it to Owen. Owen knew exactly what kind of ball Welbeck would like to receive in return and played it to perfection. The angle was superb, the weight of pass was superb and Welbeck only really had to decide where to place the shot. He did that brilliantly and a slog of a match was practically settled in the blink of an eye and a one-two that dreams are made of.

Wolves huffed and puffed, made some decent chances but could never quite find a way through and we held on for a well-deserved win.

Other things to be noted here are that everything Kuszczak had to do he did very well.

The other thing to mention is the debut of Josh King. This is a player who has impressed me in the reserves and he had a couple of chances here tonight despite coming on so late. One of them just underlined his youth and inexperience as a ball into the box was the option rather than the shot but he is definitely one to keep an eye on.

Anyway, all in all, it’s job done here tonight. Wolves will probably be kicking themselves that they didn’t give that extra 10% and take a few risks when we went down to ten men but nothing can be taken away from Manchester United and we have our name in the hat for the fourth round – hopefully the draw will be kind to us.