• FA Cup

FA Cup a priority for Utd after barren spell

Ryan Giggs has admitted that Manchester United are desperate to win the FA Cup this season and end a wait that stretches back nine years.

Following a comprehensive 4-1 defeat of Fulham at Old Trafford the Red Devils have secured their progress to the fifth round of the competition, and despite continuing involvement in the Premier League title race and the Champions League, Giggs insists that the FA Cup is also high on their priority list.

"It means a lot,'' Giggs told ESPN. "We've not done as well as we should have done in the last eight, nine years. There's a lot of players desperate to win it.

"With the history we've got in the competition, we should be there, we should be getting to finals, so hopefully this will be the year."

Sir Alex Ferguson echoed the thoughts of the veteran midfielder and underlined his determination to reach the latter stages of a competition he hasn't won since 2004.

"It was a good performance," Ferguson added. "I think we respected Fulham because we played a very strong team today. The FA Cup's an important trophy for us this season. We haven't won it for 10 years, so we really need to have a big performance this year.

"Rio Ferdinand's never won an FA Cup medal - we really need to do something about that."

Meanwhile, Fulham manager Martin Jol was left to reflect on a below-par performance in which his were overrun by dominant opposition.

But despite the defeat he maintained that the Premier League, a competition where Fulham host United next weekend, remains the most important thing.

"We tried to have good intentions and play our football but we couldn't," Jol said. "We couldn't link up from the back and we couldn't keep the ball.

"It was still 1-0 at half-time so we were still in it, but we came out and they scored two early goals and the game was finished. Luckily enough they only scored a fourth goal because it could have been one of those days that they scored six or seven.

"But it's a one-off game and we lost it. For us the most important thing is the league."

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