Theatre of disappointment

Kevin Bond was left scratching his head after our hopes of a third-successive trip to Wembley in the Carling Cup ended in the quarter-finals at Manchester United on Tuesday.

The mystery was how we failed to get going in what was such a big game just two steps from the final.

After a bright start at Old Trafford, two fine strikes from Darron Gibson put United in the driving seat 2-0 up at half-time.

The second half was a huge anti-climax and despite plenty of effort, there was no real snap from either side. David Bentley forced a decent save from Tomasz Kuszczak on the h