Foster’s glimpse of United future

Manchester United 4, Tottenham 1 after penalties

(0-0 at full time)

BEN FOSTER justified Sir Alex Ferguson’s belief that he will be Manchester United and England’s future No 1 goalkeeper after the Reds defeated Tottenham yesterday to lift the Carling Cup.

The 25-year-old Foster emerged from the shadow of Edwin van der Sar to produce a man-of-the-match display to lift the Alan Hardaker Trophy.

“Without Ben, who made two or three excellent saves, we would have lost it,” declared Ferguson after witnessing Foster’s heroics between the posts.

Foster pulled off two super stops in normal time to deny Aaron Lennon and Darren Bent while in the penalty shoot-out he kept out a spot kick from Jamie O’Hara.

Ferguson said: “The future is Foster, but the present belongs to Van der Sar. And given the experience he has gained in the final, it has only strengthened my opinion and that of my staff that he will be an England keeper for a number of years.

“I just pray he has more luck with injuries than he has had in the last two or three years. But he has to be a strong character to come through two cruciate knee ligament injuries. He has had to make tremendous sacrifices to get back to the level you saw today.”

Ferguson maintained that if the Reds are to sustain a challenge for other competitions, he will need to utilise his entire playing squad.

And that was why the likes of van der Sar, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher and Gary Neville did not feature. The only absentee, who would have been involved, was Wayne Rooney who was suffering from a virus.

The Reds’ manager also dismissed talk of achieving a clean sweep of the four competitions they are vying for.

“The great advantage is that we won’t get carried away. We could go to Fulham on Saturday and have a deflected shot off somebody’s backside, and we will be out of the cup.”

But Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp believes it is possible, saying: “They have a good chance to win the lot as they are the team to beat.

“They have won one cup, the league is going their way and I wouldn’t bet against them in the Champions League. The FA Cup could be the only tricky one as the big four could be in the semis.”

Ferguson was true to his word in rewarding the likes of Foster, John O’Shea, Danny Welbeck, Darron Gibson, Jonny Evans and Nani, who had all played prominent parts in the cup adventure, with starting spots.

But it was a well balanced line-up featuring seasoned campaigners like Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes and Carlos Tevez.

Redknapp, meanwhile, paraded all his big guns as squad rotation never entered the equation for the Spurs manager.

United settled the quicker, carving out five scoring chances in the opening quarter of the match, though keeper Heurelho Gomes was called upon only once to turn a Nani drive round the post for a corner.

It took Spurs almost half an hour to create their first opening of the final, but Foster easily beat out a fiercely-struck angled shot from Darren Bent.

Spurs had the best chance of the game with 19 minutes left when United failed to cut out Jamie O’Hara’s low cross but Aaron Lennon’s superbly-hit shot was equally well kept out by Foster’s fabulous reflexes.

Foster came to United’s rescue again four minutes from the end of extra time with an excellent block with his legs to keep out a well-struck shot from Bent.

Yet at the death Evra might have snatched victory for the Reds when his rising shot narrowly cleared the crossbar.

United’s nerve held in the penalty shoot-out as Ryan Giggs, Tevez, Ronaldo and Anderson all scored from the spot to ensure victory.