It’s easy to be wise after the event . Far better, I reckon, to see what’s coming before it happens.

Without wishing to gloat, I did tell you that the FA Cup Final between Manchester United and Chelsea would be a bit of a yawn and that we’d be lucky to see even one goal.

So why BBC TV’s John Motson chose to inform the world during extra time that the game ‘‘hadn’t really lived up to expectations’’, I have no idea. I thought it lived down to everything I expected of it. A chess game with little real goalmouth action - and just Didier Drogba’s lone extra-time strike dividing the two best teams in England.

'The two teams were so well-matched that the winner could just as well have come at the other end. The problem was that no United player seemed to know where the Chelsea goal was.'


Did anyone seriously expect a mass of goals from a couple of dozen multi-millionaires who know each other better than most people know their own bodies? Let’s face it, as two of the best tacticians in football history, Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho can read each other’s hand better than a world champion poker player.

To be honest, I only raised my head from my work to watch the action at the moments Motty’s voice reached a crescendo. I think that happened maybe three or four times all afternoon - surely proof that there wasn’t a lot to shout about in either goalmouth.

Of course, the deciding goal completed a Drog-day afternoon for lucky pup Mourinho after his much-publicised hounding by the police. Trust the Ivorian striker to strike at the death; how many times has he done that this season?

Having said that, the two teams were so well-matched that the winner could just as well have come at the other end. The problem was that no United player seemed to know where the Chelsea goal was.

Even when they did force the ball over the line, Petr Cech’s face was on the end of Ryan Giggs’s knee and the ‘goal’ was quite rightly disallowed. If Giggs fouled the keeper, why did the referee not give a free kick to the Blues, United fans are asking. The answer is because Steve Bennett double-boobed - missing both the ball crossing the line and the scorer’s unavoidable follow-through on Cech. Who said two wrongs don’t make a right?

Sadly, the absence of goals and real drama will continue whenever United and Chelsea play each other. Both teams have so much to lose that the first priority will inevitably be to stop the other side scoring. As Chelsea are probably better at that, I suspect they will snaffle more trophies than Fergie’s boys over the next few years. But the whole scene spanks of negativity - and that is the last thing the neutrals want to see.

So the first FA Cup Final at the new Wembley ended somewhat differently to the original event in 1923. No Bolton or West Ham to thrill the fans (will either of them ever get there again, one wonders), just two teams so highly skilled and drilled that they cancelled each other out. And no white horse to control the crowd, either.

Mind you, plenty of heavily-out-of-pocket United fans would have welcomed a tot or two of that aforesaid White Horse to raise their spirits on the long, miserable trek home.

What did you make of the Final? Leave a comment below of write an article for Sportingo if you prefer.