Jose hails perfect response to critics

JOSE MOURINHO rounded on his critics after guiding Manchester United to their 20th FA Cup final, equalling Arsenal’s record set last year.

Mourinho said: ‘It will be a fourth final in three years. So, maybe too much criticism.

‘We should ask ourselves why there is too many critics on all of us? We can finish second with six more points.

‘To do that with all the fantastic teams we play against will be an achievement for a club that couldn’t do it for a few years now. We deserve it. If we split the match into periods we were the best team for many of these periods. Even when they had the ball when we were winning we were totally in control.’

After going behind, United improved in the second half, Chris Smalling suggesting a half-time lecture from Mourinho made an impact. He said: ‘He told us just to play to our game plan and show that we turn up in the big games. That’s what this team does.’

Match-winner Herrera, who last scored against Yeovil in the FA Cup, said: ‘We are in another final. We are getting used to being in finals. This club is about finals and winning trophies.’

As for Spurs, it was was an eighth succesive FA Cup semi-final defeat and Dele Alli said: ‘We want to win trophies, we have the staff that want to win. We can’t keep doing this. We can’t throw it away. We have got to improve.

‘We let ourselves down. You can’t go 1-0 up and then 2-1 down against a team like Manchester United.’