The Red Devils Punish The Saints

Javier Hernan­dez

Sir Alex Ferguson´s Manchester United side defeated League One out­fit Southamp­ton 2–1 in the FA Cup Fourth Round encounter at St Mary’s Sta­dium on Sat­urday even­ing. Mid­field player Richard Chap­low gave Southamp­ton a well deserved lead in the 45th minute of the match before second half goals from ever­green vet­eran Michael Owen and excit­ing new boy Javier Hernan­dez turned the game around for Manchester United.

Southamp­ton dom­in­ated the open­ing 45 minutes of the match, refus­ing to allow the Manchester United play­ers to settle into com­fort­able pos­ses­sion. The South Coast club finally went ahead just before the half time break as mid­field dynamo Richard Chap­low hammered a fierce shot past Anders Linde­gaard in the Manchester United goal. Sir Alex Fer­guson replaced Brazilian defender Fabio da Silva with Wes Brown at the inter­val, while Ryan Giggs and Nani came on for Dar­ron Gib­son and Ander­son 13 minutes into the second half. The alter­a­tions worked won­ders as the changes saw Manchester United move up through the gears to knock the home side out of their stride. Vet­eran striker Michael Owen even­tu­ally drew Manchester United level in the 65th minute when he headed home a cross from French winger Gab­riel Ober­tan. Just ten minutes later a fine pass from the irre­press­ible Ryan Giggs found Mex­ican ace Javier Hernan­dez who rolled the ball under Southamp­ton goal­keeper Bar­tosz Bialkowski to bring the Saints down to earth.

Manchester United meet giant killers Craw­ley Town in the FA Cup Fifth Round.

Manchester United Books