Roy Hodgson copped a bit of flak from Fulham fans as well as the media for his team selection and the manner in which Fulham subsided at Old Trafford in the recent league defeat. But, after our late, late escape act against Swansea last night, the Fulham manager delivered some fighting talk aimed at those who expect us to be cannon fodder for United in front of the television cameras in our quarter final.

There are a few reasons for optimism: not least United’s packed fixture schedule. They face Tottenham in the League Cup final this weekend, will have to play the return leg of their Champions’ League tie against Inter and try to wrap up the Premier League title in the next couple of weeks. Of course, if we can produce the same sort of performance that saw us bombard the Swansea goal in the second half last night then we could well give Fergie’s boys a run for their money.

They’ll have played a lot of games and they’ll have a lot of things on their mind. Maybe we won’t meet the Manchester United we met the other night.

The way Manchester United played against us the other night is the way we played against Swansea. Our tempo was much higher, our aggression was much higher, our pressurising and our moving of the ball was much better, and most importantly of all we created goal chances.