Danny Welbeck keeps 10-man Manchester United on track

Danny Welbeck keeps 10-man Manchester United on track


The most entertaining part of the evening came right at the end when the fourth official raised the board to indicate there would be a minimum of three minutes' stoppage time. "We want six," the Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters responded. Even if their wish had been granted, however, it was difficult to imagine Mick McCarthy's side breaking down a team that had coped so admirably with having to play the final hour with 10 men.

Manchester United may not regard the Carling Cup with enduring affection but the holders still seem to regard it as a matter of duty not to relinquish the trophy. Sir Alex Ferguson's men had to cope with Fabio da Silva being sent off after half an hour, the young Brazilian committing a professional foul on Michael Kightly, but still managed to get through what should really have been a more problematic evening, triumphing through a combination of Daniel Welbeck's 66th-minute strike and the reticence of their opponents to do more to make their extra player count.

Perhaps, in hindsight, Wolves will regret not being more adventurous. McCarthy felt his side had played well, controlling the game in spells, but the feeling still persists that they might have dared to believe in themselves more. This was a United side largely made up of fringe players, and Ferguson later remarked that Wolves had actually looked more dangerous before Da Silva's departure.

Ferguson felt that "discipline got us through". His goalkeeper, Tomasz Kuszczak, kept out Wolves' best effort, a Dave Jones shot from the free-kick that followed the red card, and the game was eventually won with a goal that was classy in its creation and clinical in its execution. Welbeck's finish was almost worthy of Ferguson's remarkable assertion during the summer that the teenager would be in Fabio Capello's England squad for the World Cup. But Capello, one imagines, would be more intrigued by the contribution of Michael Owen, who set up the winner in the best move of the match.

This was only Owen's second start since he was signed in the summer to help make up the shortfall in goals left by the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and, to a lesser extent, Carlos Tevez. Ferguson had not included a single player from the team that started Sunday's Manchester derby, although it would be stretching the point to say it was a significantly weakened side. Even in a competition Ferguson regards as a chance to give his B-side a run-out, the personnel still included eight full internationals, four of them English.

The problem when there are so many changes is that it can have a detrimental effect on a side's fluency. This was the first time, for example, that Owen had played with either Welbeck or Federico Macheda and there were times when cohesion was conspicuously missing.