Ferguson determined to end barren FA Cup run
Man United boss hails ‘ good performance’ against Fulham
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed his burning desire to help his club add to their record 11 FA Cup Final successes this year.
United have won the trophy more times than any other club but have not done so since 2004, meaning that Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Darren Fletcher are the only players in the current first team squad with a winner’s medal to their name while with United.
Giggs was the only starter from that trio, scoring an early goal as United easily dealt with Fulham 4- 1 in a fourth round victory and Ferguson admitted that his players are keen to bring their barren run to an end.
“I hope this is the year that changes,” said Ferguson. “Certainly today they have done very well. Rio Ferdinand has never won an FA Cup medal and we’ve got to do something about that.
“This was a good performance. We respected Fulham, as you can see from the fact we put out a very strong team.”
Giggs himself scored a second- minute penalty, almost 20 years to the day since his first FA Cup goal for the club, to put United in control before Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez, twice, put United 4- 0 in front after only 66 minutes.
Aaron Hughes headed a late consolation for the visitors but United reached the last 16 of the competition with the minimum of fuss.
“The FA Cup means a lot,” said four- time winner Giggs. “We’ve not done as well as we should have done the last eight or nine years and we have a lot of players who are desperate to win it.”
Martin Jol, the Fulham manager, admitted his team escaped lightly and is now keen to con- centrate on remaining in the Premier League — a task that may not be straightforward given that Fulham are only six points clear of relegation.
“Luckily they only scored a fourth goal,” he said. “Because it was one of those days it could have been six or seven.
“For us the most important thing is the league and we have to concentrate on our game with West Ham now. That’s the problem. We play three games against Man City, Man United and Man United again next week. It’s a difficult spell for us.”