Whatever happened to being gracious? Yesterday was a great day for the underdog but the special celebrations for Pompey were tempered by the show of bad sportsmanship displayed by Sir Alex Ferguson.

Now I have all the respect in the world for the Man United boss. He is probably one of the most important managers in the modern game. However, his comments post match were simply outrageous and an example of the petulance that tends to exude from the Scot on the off chance his side is beaten, which is indeed very rarely.

He claimed his players were the victims of scandalous refereeing decisions and dangerous tackles. Hang on Fergie, the worst challenge of the entire match was unquestionably the two-footed lunge from Wayne Rooney that would have caused Niko Kranjcarserious damage had he not moved swiftly to avoid the barbaric attempt to remove his legs!

'The worst challenge of the entire match was unquestionably the two-footed lunge from Wayne Rooney'


Even a fair-minded United fan must have seen how horrible that tackle was. He received a yellow card but, quite frankly, if intent to injure an opponent is enough to get someone a red card (and apparently it is according to the rule book) then Rooney deserved a red.

For Sir Alex then to ponder how Cristiano Ronaldo may end up like Eduardo due to the close attention he gets during match days and then to conveniently forget his own striker’s incredibly bad challenge stinks of double standards.

Let’s get this straight: The Old Trafford side probably shouldn’t have lost yesterday. However they weren’t cheated out of the Cup, they were simply unlucky and Portsmouth ended up winners. The penalty Pompey were awarded was a correct decision, the claims for a penalty at the other end were far from clear cut.

Portsmouth, in my view, deserved the win. It wasn’t just a case of United failing to score. A succession of fantastic defensive displays secured the victory for the Harry Redknapp's side. Glen Johnson must have done his chances of an England call-up no harm with his clearance off the line. Sylvain Distin and Sol Campbell could lay claim to being one of the best centre-back pairings in the Premier League, and the save that David James made when he tipped Partice Evra’s stinging drive on to the post, was superb.

The game isn’t all about goalscorers and yesterday proved that. Portsmouth defended far better than United. This was never more evident than when, on the break, Kranjcar and Milan Baros scythed through the back line to gain the penalty that won them the game.

Why can’t some managers take losing respectfully? Harry Redknapp generally has the class to take a defeat on the chin. Sir Alex, I suggest you should take a leaf out of his book!