would have been a differant game if he had!

Ref bottled it im afraid, thats football, the ref lottery!

How would it of been if the helmsman on the Titanic had turned to Port instead of Starboard,

Its a shame, especially in a cup final.

Who’s to say if Vidic went off United still wouldnt have won?

At the end of the day the best team won. End of story!

GLORYYYYYYY GLORYYYYYYYYY MAN UNITED…………….

I think as it was so early on in a big game the ref did bottle it as Hempseed said!! It turned out to be an ok game BUT to be honest how many more times is a big sporting event going to be decided by the ref or umpires making a bad call??

Six of one and half a dozen of the other. It’s only a bad call if it goes against you,

I guess your right BUT rules are rules and in this case i fail to see how it was not a sending off? goal scoring chance,Vidic last man and to make it worse not even a yellow card!

Who’d be a premier league ref!

LAST MAN = SENDING OFF!

Referee succumbs to Ferguson’s pressure and favours one of the Big Four.

No surprise really.

Shame he had to be restrained from leading the United players up to collect the trophy.

Same old crap coming from the same old bitter fans who don’t like to see United winning anything.

Give it a break it’s becoming boring

there humans and make mistakes football wouldnt be the same if we couldnt harp on about how bad referees are,no different from us match anglers ballsing up a good peg in a big match

@trav849 wrote:

Same old crap coming from the same old bitter fans who don’t like to see United winning anything.

Give it a break it’s becoming boring

No problem with seeing them win, they probably deserved to.

Just like to see the rules applied fairly and evenly, and they weren’t.

this ref if you check the stats has sent off 5 united players in the last 2 seasons so not a bottler even 2 in 1 match.if vidic had fouled him from behind he would of been off but he was in front if you look at thr replays agbonlahor was going to ground before he even trippped over vidics leg clearly going for a penalty

@redarmy wrote:

this ref if you check the stats has sent off 5 united players in the last 2 seasons so not a bottler even 2 in 1 match.if vidic had fouled him from behind he would of been off but he was in front if you look at thr replays agbonlahor was going to ground before he even trippped over vidics leg clearly going for a penalty

I know the “stats” which is why I raised the psychological pressure Ferguson was exerting over this with his pre-match comments about the referee.

I don’t need to look at replays to see that Agbonlahor was “going to ground” due to having his shirt pulled off him and losing his balance “before he even trippped over vidics leg” which had presumably been carelessly left in his way!

@trav849 wrote:

Same old crap coming from the same old bitter fans who don’t like to see United winning anything.

Give it a break it’s becoming boring

It must be very frustrating for the genuine Man U fans not being able to justify the actions of the officials, and having to rely on abuse to hide their disappointment of having what should have been a good win spoilt.

Who gives a flying fcuk. Utd won so as the Aussies say ‘Build a bridge and get over it’,

same old bolloc@s from the same old people. the refs bent, the refs a bottler. its eleven against eleven same for both sides why would you want eleven against ten after 3 minutes. they couldnt beat out 10 men last time so whats changed.i thought villa played well, it was a good game to watch,do you honestly think 11 against 10 for 90 minutes would have been a spectacle. also wasnt the player who sythe’d owen down last man as owen bore down on the villa goal?????????. i expect you lot will also be telling your grandchildren that fergie was a crap manager who only won a few trophy,s by bullying referee,s. get over it villa lost the game not the referee

@herbie wrote:

same old bolloc@s from the same old people. the refs bent, the refs a bottler. its eleven against eleven same for both sides why would you want eleven against ten after 3 minutes. they couldnt beat out 10 men last time so whats changed.i thought villa played well, it was a good game to watch,do you honestly think 11 against 10 for 90 minutes would have been a spectacle. also wasnt the player who sythe’d owen down last man as owen bore down on the villa goal?????????. i expect you lot will also be telling your grandchildren that fergie was a crap manager who only won a few trophy,s by bullying referee,s. get over it villa lost the game not the referee

which the media never even mention by the letter of the law last man should be off both incidents

I think that Emile Heskey could have played better today if he spent more time training and less time endorsing Premier Inn

Former Premier League referee Graham Poll believes Phil Dowd used a technicality in the rules to avoid sending off Nemanja Vidic during Manchester United’s Carling Cup victory over Aston Villa yesterday.

The Serbia defender brought down Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor in the fourth minute to give away a penalty, which James Milner scored from to give Martin O’Neill’s side the lead, but the official did not send Vidic off despite him appearing to be the last man.

But Poll, who infamously showed three yellow cards to Croatia defender Josip Simunic before sending him off at the 2006 World Cup, told BBC Radio Five Live: “The referee would have looked for an excuse not to send the player off, and that doesn’t matter if it was an Aston Villa player or a Manchester United player.

“People will say that is rubbish, as there is nothing about a cup final in the rules but you try to use your common sense and understand the occasion.

“There was a technicality that allowed him to keep Vidic on and he used it.

“The player must be heading towards goal, it’s a stupid technicality, but he (Agbonlahor) loses control of the ball and it goes behind him and at the moment he goes down he is heading six or seven yards wide of goal.”

technically he should have prob been sent off but that would spoil a cup final 3 minutes into it so I can see why he looked for a technicality

simple fact is, villa got a goal out of it anyway and the referee didnt bottle it, it was villa im afraid who bottled it

ps before anyone starts, am an everton fan lol

it wouldnt hav spoiled it it prob made it better! how many times do teams get penalty at old trafford!!

there scared of sir alex!

Skimmer roo – What a load of b*llocks.

And

Who knows whether it would have been a better or worse game. In general sendings off do not tend to make a game better, if you look at the number of goals scored in a game with 10 men, its alot less. 10 men sitting behind the half way line defending for their lives….

People envy success.

That ref has a big pay cheque coming his way ~naughty

It was a definite penalty and a definite sending off. Even Fergie has had the humility to admit that Vidic was “lucky” not to be sent off, so I think the Man U fans on here need to take those blinkers off and admit that it was wrong.

I’m not saying that Man U would not have won the game – they are a good side and would still have had a chance – but you have to been honest with yourself and admit that Vidic should have gone.

@Mikey .J. wrote:

Skimmer roo – What a load of b*llocks.

And

Who knows whether it would have been a better or worse game. In general sendings off do not tend to make a game better, if you look at the number of goals scored in a game with 10 men, its alot less. 10 men sitting behind the half way line defending for their lives….

People envy success.

every one knows its fact! there scared!

It was a sending off tackle i agree. But what about Owen? Fouled. last man through on goal? But you dont see that being picked up on and why’s that? Because United are hated for being so successful.

Sour grapes.

The best team won. Fact.

MJ, the Owen/ Collins challenge was nowhere near as clear cut as the Vidic/ Agbonlahor one and I think you know that and are just being facetious! With the former, there was a covering defender in the middle and there was no way that it was a “clear goalscoring opportunity”.

The fact[erm] that he was heading away from the net might just have had something to do with the FACT his shirt was being ripped from him ?
His shirt was being pulled was’nt it ?
so where does this garbage come from about he “tackled him from the front” why did he have hold of his shirt ?is that not a penalty anyway,talk about splitting hairs,my god !
think these man u fans need to take their obviously red specs off .
The man is a cheat end of .

@glen worthington wrote:

The fact[erm] that he was heading away from the net might just have had something to do with the FACT his shirt was being ripped from him ?
His shirt was being pulled was’nt it ?
so where does this garbage come from about he “tackled him from the front” why did he have hold of his shirt ?is that not a penalty anyway,talk about splitting hairs,my god !
think these man u fans need to take their obviously red specs off .

The man is a cheat

end of .

who is a cheat

Who is a cheat
anybody who breaks the rules
Jesus there is enough people posting on here complaining of people cheating at all sorts of things.
Did he pull his shirt
yes he did = cheat
how can anybody even try to defend it ~think

So by those rules very few teams in ANY league would finish with as many players are they started. In fact games would need to be abandoned mid way due to lack of players. It’s called ‘Gamesmanship’ IE: Everyone wants an edge. I do it YOU do it another fact is that EVERYBODY does it. Welcome to the real world,

@Mikey .J. wrote:

It was a sending off tackle i agree. But what about Owen? Fouled. last man through on goal? But you dont see that being picked up on and why’s that? Because United are hated for being so successful.

Sour grapes.

The best team won. Fact.

he wasnt the last man if you look again!!

@piperpilot wrote:

So by those rules very few teams in ANY league would finish with as many players are they started. In fact games would need to be abandoned mid way due to lack of players. It’s called ‘Gamesmanship’ IE: Everyone wants an edge. I do it YOU do it another fact is that EVERYBODY does it. Welcome to the real world,

Well i hope that i dont see ANYMORE posts on here complaining that “so and so” used a hook size that was not allowed or he had too much bait or he only 22 instead of 23 keepnets,and someone says he should be banned,Its not gamesmanship its called CHEATING,so why have rules or are they just to be broken ?How many times have we had “he was casting into my swim” or he had 53lb in his keepnet ,while only had 49lb in mine he should of been disqualified and then i would of won.
Sorry got you now its ok if its your side or you that does the cheating ,right see where you’re comming from

You can’t change the result so live with it and don’t try to tell me any fan wouldn’t do the same as it happens in every game every week in every football league in the world just look at the penalty area DIVERS. Look forward to the world cup maybe England will cheat or get cheated against. Such is life,

What ifs and buts.

Rooney would have come on earlier and Utd would still have won. Maybe by more. All pure conjecture as is nearly every post before it.

Utd won, Villa lost. It is in the record books.