{"id":242178,"date":"2026-01-13T09:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T09:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/242178\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T09:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T09:51:15","slug":"danny-welbeck-shines-as-brighton-dump-manchester-united-out-of-fa-cup-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/242178\/","title":{"rendered":"Danny Welbeck shines as Brighton dump Manchester United out of FA Cup \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/manchester-united\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/manchester-united\/\">Manchester United<\/a>\u2019s hunt for trophies is over inside the second week of January after a ruthless Brighton took advantage of yet another loose defensive performance. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/fa-cup\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/fa-cup\/\">FA Cup<\/a> third-round knockout means the 13-time winners have been dumped from the competition and the League Cup at the first opportunity for a first time since 1981-82.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">By the end of May United\u2019s season will stand at a total of 40 games \u2013 their lowest number in a complete campaign since 1914-15. If August\u2019s Carabao Cup penalty shoot-out elimination at Grimsby was dire, this disappointment was as concerningly insipid, goals from Brajan Gruda and Danny Welbeck, one in each half, (probably) ending Darren Fletcher\u2019s record as the interim manager as winless \u2013 this defeat following Wednesday\u2019s draw at Burnley in the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Benjamin Sesko steered in an 85th-minute header but United failed to grab the lifeline despite Old Trafford roaring them on. Instead, during the five minutes of added time Shea Lacey received a second yellow and marching orders from Simon Hooper for dissent, the referee having previously booked the 18-year-old substitute for a late tackle. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The youngster wandered off appearing in tears: an unfortunate yet apt microcosm of a 2025-26 that is in tatters for United.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On Monday the club are expected to announce who will become the second interim, to replace Fletcher, who took over after Ruben Amorim\u2019s sacking last week. Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r and Michael Carrick have been interviewed for the role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Whoever is appointed now has only a Champions League berth to aim for \u2013 United are in seventh on 32 points, three behind Liverpool in the fourth place that guarantees qualification. But after this latest blow, who knows if any form of European football will be secured. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United\u2019s hunt for trophies is over inside the second week of January after a ruthless Brighton took&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,65434,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-242178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-man-utd","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}