But in the back of his mind he will know that he’s one of the most successful mangers in the cup against the mighty Reds.
It was back in 1984 when he masterminded his first snatch and grab at the Theatre of Dreams with Bournemouth, while more recently, in 2001, he guided West Ham to a famous 1-0 win thanks the that Di Canio ‘on-side’ goal.
So, now with Pompey the well-travelled manager will be looking for a unique hat-trick over the Red Devils, and at around the 9/1 those that follow him will be rewarded handsomely if he pulls it off.
This will be the sixth time the pair have met at Old Trafford in just over four years with United winning all of them (three wins at 3-0). However, with the FA Cup being the FA Cup and full of surprises Pompey are bound to have their supporters with United looking unbackable as a single at around 1/3.
Both sides saw off Premiership opposition 2-1 (Villa and Wigan) in the last round and with the13 top-flight sides left in the competition definitely going to be reduced to at least 10 come the end of fourth round the winners here will fancy their chances of going all the way to Wembley.
United have been on a roll in recent weeks which has seen them go clear at the top of the Premiership, but Arsenal brought them back to earth with a bang last Sunday coming from a goal down to beat Fergie’s men 2-1. His team have had no midweek engagements so should be well over that setback and although skinny in the betting it will be a brave man to take them on.
As I’ve already said Man Utd’s favourite scoreline in recent encounters with Portsmouth has been 3-0, and they repeated that the last time they met in November when Ronaldo, Saha and Vidic were the scorers. A further repeat of this 3-0 can be backed at around 15/2.
With nothing to lose I don’t expect Pompey to roll over as easily here, but they have only got three victories on the road in the league this term and it’s clearly their home form that’s stood them in good stead so far.
Pompey striker Kanu on his day can cause a problem to any defence and has already netted 10 times this season (1 FA Cup) and a major thing to point out is that United have let in at least one goal in their last six games. At around 4/1 just to score Kanu looks Pompey’s best option and is worth a small interest.
Back to the hosts Rooney and Larsson look likely to continue up front with Saha on the bench as back up. Rooney got back on the scoresheet at the weekend, his first goal in seven games. We are yet to see the best of the England striker this season, but if that goal has put the spark back into him the 11/10 for him to score and 4/1 first might look good prices after 90 minutes.
Ronaldo needs no introduction this campaign, as he’s clearly United’s ‘Player of the Year’ so far. Fergie has worked his magic again after a rocky summer for the Portuguese winger and with eight goals in his last nine games to me he looks worth sticking with. He’s 7/4 just to score and 13/2 to find the first goal of the game.
The other markets that were of interest were the Half-time result and Over 2.5 goals. United have been drawing seven of the last eight games after 45 mins so the 15/8 on offer for them to continue in this vein is worth following, while a huge 11 of they last 12 games have had over 2.5 goals in them, so the 4/5 on a further repeat of this also looks a solid bet.
Recommended Bets - 3pts - Over 2.5 goals
Recommended Bets - 2pts - Half-time result – Draw
Recommended Bets - 2pts - Ronaldo to score
Recommended Bets - 1/2pt - Kanu to score
• All prices correct at time of writing.
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