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FA Cup Giant Killing week-end
From Old Trafford to Oakwell this weekend, the FA Cup stirred the emotions of the great, the good and the grumpy. Anger at defeat coloured every toxic comment spilling from the mouth of Sir Alex Ferguson. Across the Pennines, pride in victory fuelled a "thank you" speech from Dickie Bird so lengthy it could have graced the Oscars, Barnsley's No 1 fan showering gratitude on everyone connected with the club including "the tea ladies and ladies who wash the kit
Nothing showed the Cup's power to seize the imagination like United's leaving of it, or Barnsley's staying in it. Ferguson's players fought like tigers to overturn Portsmouth's 1-0 lead only to be thwarted by the defensive brilliance of Glen Johnson, Sol Campbell, David James and a spiky midfield sentry named Lassana Diarra.
As the clock ticked down, Wayne Rooney gave Nani the mother, sister and distant cousin of all rollockings for showing mercy to a stricken Portsmouth player and putting the ball out. Up in the gods, Pompey's jubilant fans twirled their shirts in the air. At the final whistle, Ferguson looked more ready to start a war than a waltz.
A distinguished manager and remarkable man, United's driving force embarrassed himself with that vitriolic attack on the refereeing community. When the Football Association disciplinary beaks meet to punish Ferguson for claiming that Martin Atkinson was "on the side" of Portsmouth, they should point out certain unanswerable realities.
Atkinson, one of the game's better referees, undoubtedly erred badly in failing to award Cristiano Ronaldo a blatant penalty when bowled over by Sylvain Distin but it was an honest mistake. Atkinson was hardly culpable for Ferguson's substitute, Michael Carrick, missing the target from a yard. Ferguson also chose the wrong day to lambaste the elite referees' chief, Keith Hackett. He appoints officials in the league, not the Cup. If Ferguson still falters on the road to contrition, the FA should remind him that if he had glanced to his left on Saturday, he would have spotted a certain Pedro Mendes, a midfielder outrageously once denied a goal at Old Trafford that clearly crossed the line. Lady Luck winks at everyone in time.
When Ferguson then disappears in a cloud of self-righteous smoke, the FA can shout after him that he is quite right, elegant crowd-pleasers like Ronaldo do deserve protecting, just as Pompey's Niko Kranjcar did when Rooney dangerously left the ground and launched his muscular frame at the Croatian.
Ferguson is a wonderful manager but his judgement is skewed at times. The vaunted Scot was not alone amongst the troubled aristocrats.
On the weekend that downstairs stormed upstairs, similar defiance to Portsmouth's against Ferguson's United could be discovered at Oakwell.
A side assembled for £1 million took the lead against a visiting Chelsea XI costing £100 million, and they then protected that lead with their lives as all around shouted "Yorkshire, Yorkshire". As the late siege of Luke Steele's goalmouth deepened, a Barnsley child in the stands clutched his Thomas the Tank Engine bag tightly for reassurance, occasionally using it as a shield to obscure the sight of Chelsea's scary attacks. When the day was won, the bag flew to the heavens. That was the moment a Yorkshire lad fell in love with football for life. The Cup has that effect.
Barnsley's impressive young manager, Simon Davey, spoke for all outside the roped-off area of the glitterati when he enthused about the lower orders' fervour for the Cup.
"We hope we have put the Cup back up there on its pedestal," said Davey, as the Thomas the Tank Engine bag was reunited with its owner and police and stewards ushered jubilant Barnsley fans off the pitch.
"It has always been a top Premier League team side, a United, Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea who have won the Cup. We put Liverpool out and now Chelsea. We are making dreams come true. We are putting the magic back in the Cup."
The numbers give substance to Davey's words, to the whiff of revolution in the air. Of the 248 semi-finalists since the War, 72 have worn the colours from United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea, with 29 of the 62 trophies falling to that leading quartet. Not since 1987 have one of the Big Four failed to feature in the semis. Throw in Tottenham and Everton and the last time the elite were not represented in the final four was 1975.
The Cup runneth over with joy everywhere. In the BBC bus parked in the Oakwell car-park, familiar faces who know their way to Wembley, illustrious former professionals like Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer and Mark Lawrenson, nibbled on crisps and feasted on the extraordinary event they had just covered. A Barnsley fan walked past with a banner celebrating the Beeb's presence. "Bring Back Lawro's Tash" it read.