Apart from defeat

[themilkycoffees]

It's definitely not an achievement but it's certainly close and as close as we've come in nearly a decade since the 2009 final. If Lukaku had his shooting boots on in the semi v United, then I'd have fancied us to beat Palace in the final.

[D15TIN]

Hang on lads, nothing we have seen in the last 4 years has got anywhere near the days of Smith. To suggest otherwise at the end of criticism of the last few years borders on bathos territory.

I agree, but Smith had to work under peter Johnson, generally the last 3 managers have had a very talented squad

Those last 2 seasons under Martinez where the most frustrating, especially as we had 4 of the most exciting young players in the league at that time, baines & coleman in their primes etc, and Martinez insisted on playing slug football passing for passings sake

[Jamokachi]

We were never even remotely close to winning anything under him.

Getting to the semi final of the domestic cups is not an achievement.

Whilst it's not an achievement, it's still closer to winning something than either of those that have followed have managed.

[Ell Capitan]

It's not an achievement, but you can't say it's not close.

We only played shit teams to get there though. Maybe one PL team if I remember right.

Martinez style was only ever good for beating teams that were considerably worse than us. Better teams would punish our many mistakes. It’s why he always had a relatively good record in cups compared to other managers, because we were less likely to fall victim to an upset result.

[BlueMaquis]

Martinez, for all his faults, still got the Belgium job.

Koeman (who, in my view, was a slight bit worse than RM) for all his faults, still got the Netherlands job.

What job do you think fucking Allardyce will/could get?

Err... the England job?

[Bluenose 91]

Don't think you can really be ''close'' to winning something without being in the final tbh.

Also there was nothing to suggest to me that we'd have beat Palace in that final had we got past United.

Everyone was walloping us for fun at that point of the season.

[Shogun]

Don't think you can really be ''close'' to winning something without being in the final tbh.

Also there was nothing to suggest to me that we'd have beat Palace in that final had we got past United.

Everyone was walloping us for fun at that point of the season.

IIRC we were awful in that first half v United. I can remember Stones having a stormer in the second half and it seemed like the players had decided to ignore whatever Martinez was telling them.

[Bluenose 91]

IIRC we were awful in that first half v United. I can remember Stones having a stormer in the second half and it seemed like the players had decided to ignore whatever Martinez was telling them.

Was on the ale from about 8am that day and all I can remember is Lukaku's pen being saved.

[TheRam]

Didnt we have a proper mad defence out there?

I'm thinking Pennington centre half and Besic right back?

[kramer0]

IIRC we were awful in that first half v United. I can remember Stones having a stormer in the second half and it seemed like the players had decided to ignore whatever Martinez was telling them.

I remember Gibson dropping back into defense and allowing Stones to charge forward. That was an entertaining half of football. Until the gut punch.

It was fun having players with another level to access.

[Shogun]

Was on the ale from about 8am that day and all I can remember is Lukaku's pen being saved.

State of him that day

[themilkycoffees]

State of him that day

Could have had about 4 on his own. Can't believe we didn't win that game.