There would have been many Manchester United fans who relished watching their City rivals slowly slipping out of the Europa League but should they have been? Manchester City started the season with high expectations of picking up at least one of the four trophies available to them in order to stop that embarrassing 35 year drought without any kind of silverware. Their title hopes were virtually dashed weeks ago, the Europa League is now also gone while even the hardly glamorous Carling Cup saw City make an early exit. It only leaves the FA Cup to salvage something out of the season and with no disrespect to either Stoke or Bolton, it is United who appear to be their major hurdle.

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He may have broken all Manchester United hearts half a century ago when he scored twice to deny our beloved Busby Babes an FA Cup three months after Munich but as Bolton legend Nat Lofthouse was laid to rest this afternoon he was saluted as one of the all time greats of English football. Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Alex Ferguson were on hand to represent Manchester United and speaking after the service, Sir Bobby described it as “marvellous”. He said “It was lovely. Nat would have been proud. I remember him as a really tough ma

n and a really tough footballer in the days that football was tough. He was a great credit to Bolton.” Read the full story

As Manchester United travel to the seaside on Tuesday night for the first time since 1974, younger fans may regard Blackpool as a newcomer to top flight football but that was not always the case. It was one of England’s leading clubs after the war with legends like Sir Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen striking fear in everyone they faced. Their 1948 FA Cup Final meeting with United was described at the time as “one of the greatest cup finals in history”.  United had reached Wembley via a seemingly impossible route that saw them face first division opposition in every round. After beating  Aston Villa 6-4 in round three they had to face league champions Liverpool who were beaten 3-0. That was followed by a 2-0 victory over Charlton then a 4-2 win against Preston. Centre forward  Stan Pearson scored a hat-trick in the 3-1 semi final defeat of  Derby at Hillsborough before facing Blackpool in the final.

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