On the way to Wembley on Saturday, the train stopped at Birmingham and we were there for a while. A message came over the speakers that someone had committed suicide on the line ahead, and that we'd be running over an hour late.

If I was to believe in signs, maybe I, along with the other United fans on that train, would have been best off jumping on a train in the opposite direction back to Manchester. As it worked out, we stayed on the train, sat in Birmingham for an hour, and we did get to the ground on time. But the day didn't get much better.

United have made three FA Cup finals in four years, losing two of them after 90 minutes. Leaving Cardiff on that rainy day left me feeling sick, whereas on Saturday I just felt fed up. It was a pleasure to be one of the 89,000 at the first FA Cup Final at the new Wembley, but I felt quite the opposite about being subjected to the match I watched. My prior worry about the game had been realised, as United looked shattered and struggled to shine.

With our first choice striker, Louis Saha, out injured for the past three months, Sir Alex Ferguson has been forced in to a whole array of formations. The most successful of these has been Ryan Giggs playing up front with Wayne Rooney, although it’s not entirely popular with the United faithful.

Rooney, whilst being a goalscorer, is not a lone striker, and struggles being shoved up front by himself. Giggs, at 33, has filled the gap for the most part, but with over 40 games under his belt this season, it was clear he could not go on forever. As we’ve seen from him in recent weeks, his legs just aren’t what they used to be, and it’s ridiculous to expect the United favourite to carry that attacking role after such a long season. This was expected of him on Saturday, however - and he failed to deliver.

Both teams looked absolutely exhausted from the outset, United passing the ball around casually, with the Chelsea players making little effort to win it off them. Both sides gave away possession carelessly, with groans frequently being heard from both sections of the crowd. Both sides failed to produce a top save from either keeper. Both sides failed to work up much hope in their fans.

Neither side deserved to win based on what we had seen so far. After Jose Mourinho had put pressure on the ref before the game, it was no surprise that there was to be some refereeing controversy, and it came in extra time. Watching the highlights when I returned home, the commentators said it was no goal because of a foul by Giggs on Petr Cech. But no free-kick was awarded to Chelsea, and it appears the goal was deemed not a goal because the ref did not think it crossed the line. He was wrong. The whole ball did cross the line.

Was it a penalty? It wasn’t a stonewall penalty in my mind, but did Michael Essien’s contact on the player, nowhere near the ball, do enough to put Giggs off? Mourinho has claimed this season that referees always favour United with penalties, and work against Chelsea. Again, Ferguson will be left to regret not putting equal pressure on to the referee.

Before the game, I stressed the importance of United winning the league, that whatever the outcome of the final, we had won what we wanted and needed to win this season. If Chelsea had taken the lead through a good move with no controversy earlier in the game, it would have been a case of taking it on the chin and getting on with it. But to lose at the time we did, in the way we did, is entirely frustrating.

It’s frustrating that we weren’t able to show our attacking flair, it’s frustrating that for so much of the game we looked like the better side but couldn’t score, and it’s frustrating that there is any sense of “being robbed”. We were robbed blind in Cardiff two years ago, and whilst the difference between the sides wasn’t as pronounced this time, the Giggs goal and the poor refereeing decision which led to Chelsea’s goal does leave a bitter taste.
With hindsight, it is easy to look at what could or should have been done. Maybe United should have started with Alan Smith and Rooney up front, and Giggs and Ronaldo on the wings. This would have taken the pressure off Rooney and given Ronaldo more room. Every time our Portuguese winger was on the ball, he instantly had two or three blue shirts around him.

It was Chelsea's day, Didier Drogba carried them through this season and he also won them an FA Cup. It’s what happens in football - big players need just one chance, big decisions can cost you matches, or win you matches, cost you trophies, or win them for you. When two sides, who have set themselves apart from the rest of the league this season, meet in a final, then it is going to be a close-run thing.

A double would have been lovely this season, to really stick two fingers up at all of Ferguson’s critics but I’ll quite happily take the league title…and any honest Chelsea fan would admit that, regardless of their domestic Cups, they’d rather have had our season, too.

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