United's youngsters may have failed by a whisker to win the FA Cup semi-final but they still passed a severe test of their temperament with credit.
That was the positive message from Sir Alex Ferguson in the wake of a penalties defeat to Everton at Wembley, where he fielded four teenagers in Fabio and Rafael da Silva, Federico Macheda and Danny Welbeck. The average age of the starting XI was only 22.
"We had two teams in mind after Wednesday’s win in Portugal, with one leaving out two or three players but having watched the game yesterday (Chelsea's semi-final versus Arsenal), I thought the pitch looked heavy and dead," Sir Alex told MUTV.
"What I couldn’t afford was extra-time with my strongest team, with our programme coming up. We’ve got games on Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday lunch-time (at Middlesbrough) and then Tuesday. I had to make a change some time.
"Knowing the young players' temperament, their quality and their energy, I thought it was the right thing to do. Obviously I’m going to have some critics but I think the fans know this club is built on young players getting an opportunity.
"We wanted to give them an opportunity today. I know that in whatever games we’ve got in the run-in, we can play the likes of Macheda, Welbeck and Rafael without any question at all."
Welbeck was one of the players who came closest to breaking the deadlock, not least when he was brought down by Everton centre-half Phil Jagielka in the penalty
area. This 67th-minute incident brought controversy in the contest with referee Mike Riley ignoring United's appeals for a spot-kick. Seemingly livid at the time, Sir Alex seemed almost resigned to the Reds' fate afterwards.
"It looked a penalty kick to me. I’ve seen some videos of it and there’s no doubt that Jagielka’s caught him. He (Welbeck) was clean through on goal and the goalkeeper’s really stranded. But what can you say? It wasn’t given and there’s nothing we can do about it."
Riley's failure to award the penalty and the general absence of goalmouth action led the semi-final to extra-time and ultimately a rare shoot-out defeat for United after victories in the Champions League final, Carling Cup final and two Community Shield matches.
"It's hard to take," admitted Sir Alex, "but we’ve won a few in the last two or three years. We know the name of the game in these situations, it is a bit of a lottery, but it’s the only way you can decide it when it gets to that stage."
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