At 9:02am on the morning after Manchester United’s ruthless dismantling act at Chelsea, Michael Carrick fired up his Twitter app.
Sports Livestream ⚽ JOIN NOW for FREE
Instant access to the BT Sport, Sky Sports and Eurosport
“To every single one of you behind the goal last night,” he wrote. “Non-stop from start to finish. The noise and energy was incredible. Would have loved to be in there myself. Thank you. Same again Sunday please.”
At the time of writing, that post has been ‘liked’ 73,977 times. And I’m fairly convinced that around 5,945 of those tappers and clickers were Reds scanning Carrick’s words from under drooping eyelids, while nursing hangovers of considerable severity.
Those of us that were in the Shed End on Monday night were knackered and sleep-deprived come Tuesday morning. The last train to Manchester hadn’t reached Piccadilly station until around 2am, and I didn’t rest my head on my pillow until around 3am. But I was still buzzing at my desk, several hours later.
The Emirates FA Cup’s kick-off times don’t always make it easy for away supporters – one mate was gutted that he couldn’t get to Chelsea after being at Arsenal in the last round, simply because he couldn’t take any more time off work. But the competition is still brilliant. Away fans are entitled to 15 per cent of the ticket allocation and – when they get it – it makes for a brilliant atmosphere.
