We’ll bounce back, warns Giggs
RYAN GIGGS insists Manchester United must bounce back from their Newcastle nightmare by knocking arch-rivals Manchester City out of the FA Cup.
The champions suffered back-to-back defeats in the Barclays Premier League for the first time in three seasons when they were beaten 3-0 at the Sports Direct Arena.
Goals from Demba Ba and Yohan Cabaye set Newcastle on their way before Phil Jones’ own goal sealed United’s fate.
They now sit three points behind City in the race for the title, but Giggs has now urged them to erase the memories at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
The Manchester giants square up on Sunday in a mouthwatering FA Cup third round showdown.
Giggs said: “We have a great scoring record this season, so hopefully this is just a one off and we can get back to scoring ways on Sunday.
“It is obviously a big game against City in the FA Cup. The atmosphere will be good, we’ll take a load of fans there and hopefully we can get back to winning ways.”
Giggs, who played the full 90 minutes against Newcastle, held his hands up when asked about United’s performance on Tyneside. But the 38-year-old is adamant they have the quality to move on from their latest setback in their rollercoaster season.
He said: “You can have these nights, nobody likes them and
RANSFORD OSEI nobody wants them, but it can happen. You have got to give credit to Newcastle.
“They worked hard, closed us down and scored a couple of good goals, so we have just got to take it and move on.
“It is a difficult place to come and get a win, but we didn’t play to our capabilities and when you don’t do that against a team like Newcastle – who are riding high this season – you are always going to come unstuck.”
Giggs admitted Cabaye’s stunning free-kick at the start of the second half was the killer blow.
He added: “We started okay. Obviously, their goal knocked the stuffing out of us a little bit but we were still in the game at 1-0 and thought we were going to create chances.
“We weren’t too disheartened at half-time and we felt that we could get back into the game. It wasn’t how we envisaged or hoped the second-half would start. It was a great free-kick – you can’t do anything about those unfortunately.
“Even at 2-0, we still felt we could get back into the game with just one goal and we had chances. We had a 10 or 15-minute spell when we created a couple of half-chances, Simmo (Danny Simpson) blocked one off the line from Wayne and it just didn’t go for us.”
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson insisted he wouldn’t panic, even though rivals City have stolen a march on his team in the title race. “We have the experience to cope, we need to get the show on the road,” said Ferguson. “It’s not a time for panic,” he insisted.