Manchester United fans will claim this was only justice for Bobby Stokes goal in 1976, but the truth is Saints were hard done by and deserved more.

Saints showed that they are a different team these days with the addition of Manolo Gabbiadini and took the game to United from the start but it was not just the 11 in red shirts that they had to contend with.

There won't be a Saints fan who wont now have seen that Gabbiadini's "goal" early in the game was onside and it was Bertrand behind him who was off, as he did not become active in play the goal should have stood .

But for all Saints attacking flair, the harsh reality of why we lost was the fact that we did not stay switched on at key moments in the game.

The first goal perhaps was not a free kick and perhaps the wall should have been a little more to the right, but it cannot be argued that Ibrahimovic put the ball right in the corner and it was a decent strike.

The second was slack marking with Lingard just left to casually line up his shot and stroke the ball home.

At this point Saints looked down and out and it needed something to stir the troops, that came in injury time of the first half when Gabbiadini lost his man and stabbed the ball home through De Gea's legs to give hope.

There was even more hope when the Italian equalised minutes after the break when he held off his man and swivelled and fired home.

Suddenly the dynamics of the game had changed, in the first half the Saints fans had been flat, now they found their voices and the team found a new confidence and for long period there looked to be only one winner.

But luck was still not with Saints or Romeu who saw his header come back off the post.

Gabbiadini seems to have been the missing link in Claude Puel's formation, the team now look like they believe they can score goals and this has given them confidence, Nathan Redmond in particular looks to be benefiting from having a more mobile strike partner who can get on the end of his crosses.

Fair play to Claude Puel who brought on Long to replace Gabbiadini who had run his socks off, with the French manager looking to win the game rather than take it to extra time.

But it was ultimately to be more heartbreak for Saints with less than four minutes of normal time to go, Ibrahimovic headed home from close range and you have to ask why he had an unmarked header from barely six yards out, someone should have been marking him, but we had switched off and it cost us dearly.

On came Rodriguez for a last throw of the dice but it was not to be and Saints fans headed for the exits feeling they had been cheated.

It was hard to take, but we can take pride in the performance that we put up and in the manner in which we accepted defeat, we took it with good grace and took it on the chin.

The real disappointment was that not only have we not won the trophy but we will now probably not qualify for Europe and that hurts too.

But there are a lot of plus points, we have shown that we are still moving forward, still progressing and we have taken another big step to showing that as a club we are capable of challenging for honours.

In December we were a shadow of the team we were last season, the stuffing had been knocked out of us, but now we look like a team again and we can start to kick in to the Premier league and get a run of results together that will propel us up the league.

There are some who say that this defeat didn't hurt enough, there is some mileage in that, we have had little to cheer about in terms of cup final appearances, this was a welcome distraction from the League, but now we have tasted it we want more and next time we will have that much more experience as a team.

There is a lot of pride to be had this morning in being a Saints supporter and there is also a lot of hope that we can now continue our journey onwards and upwards, we march on !

Photo: Action Images

redwight added 18:16 - Feb 27 P.S. Can someone please fix up some English lessons for CP in the summer.
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richsaints added 19:30 - Feb 27 I have been a constant critic of Claude puel ever since day one even before a ball was kicked in the summer but credit where credits due he had two weeks to prepare and did a magnificent job they played their hearts out and with skill the obvious weakness at the back cost us but only just he knew it was there but he sent them out with such positivity that he must credit for

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allsaint54 added 19:37 - Feb 27 Great performance from the saints. Never going to get the rub of the green from officials with Utd playing. It was bad enough for the FA not having a Utd v Liverpool final let alone Utd to lose. I've been one of Yoshi's biggest critics but I thought he was magnificent sweeping up behind Stephens, also Redmond had one of his best games. We can only hope that Gabbis form continue, if so he'll be an absolute bargain even at 14M. Only downside is the continuing poor form of Forster. If the shot s not straight at him it's a goal. He looks overweight which shows that he is always slow to get across to shots. Sell him in the summer whilst we can still get a reasonable fee for him. He's a shadow of his former self. Joe Harts looking for a new club next season.

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saintmark1976 added 19:48 - Feb 27 A wonderful match worthy of the final and such a pleasure to see two teams giving it a go rather than playing safety first football as happens on so many occasions nowadays. For me the only downside was the further evidence of Forster's alarming decline in form. What on earth has happened to the fella recently? Opinions differ as to how culpable he was for their three goals but what cannot be denied is his inability to even do even the simple things properly. Yesterday he punched a straight forward catch directly to a Man U player who was forty yards away.He looked scared to death every time the ball was passed back to him and his kicking was dreadful.Surely now is the time to take him out of the firing line for his own self preservation?

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richsaints added 19:53 - Feb 27 Great to hear positive words from Kruger on a day when us saints fans really need it the positive from yesterday for me is if we play like that regularly most premier teams would crumble well we will see starting sat at Watford .
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AmericanSaint added 21:00 - Feb 27 All - many good and valid comments and praise for the boys performance yesterday. I sat and watched the game at a local sports bar with some fellow Saints fans. You know your team was the better side when the following happened: 1) The ManU fan next to you admits that Gabs 1st goal was a goal and second he said they were lucky. 2) When Mourinho was given the Cup, he looked like he was holding a poison vile caused he knew his team did not deserve it. Next, we have not had any real luck this season and it continued yesterday. So many ricochets and bounces went ManU's way. While many did not amount much, several slowed our attacks. Also, while there are arguments that a player on each side should have been sent off, I think the ref did a decent job. NOW for the lineman......I will say this - I understand refs/lineman make mistakes when its a close call. That is human nature. BUT this call he made was so bad, he needs to lose his ability to ref in the Premier League, which tauts itself as the best. The ref should have walked over there and has a consultation to give him time to review it in his mind. Lastly, why does every other major sport leagues in the world use technology to enhance the fairness and experience, yet the FA is so against it. Look how goal line technology has made such a positive impact on the game. Now you need to have the ability for dead-ball reviews. Each team should get to have one review a half. Ok, done with the commentary. Now we have a proven goal scorer in Gabs and time to make a run up the table. COYRs.

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TeamCortese added 22:17 - Feb 27 Fraser Forster aside I was incredibly proud to be a Saints supporter. The lads were amazing and were unbelievably unlucky not to have won it. It seemed that the footballing gods were against us Sunday. Despite the bad omens we came bloody close to winning. Another realisation I came to is I have very little respect for Man Utd and their supporters. It frustrates me that they're seen as a better team than us and we're below them in the table. Nevertheless we made a brilliant account of ourselves and we very much kept our heads held high even to the final whistle. I can honestly say the atmosphere at Wembley is a moment I will cherish for the rest of my life. COYR

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IanRC added 09:45 - Feb 28 Probably the best final I have seen, exciting and at time breathtaking. Shame the officials spoils it with two poor decisions. Clearly we should have been a goal up early on but just as poor was Marriner's inconsistency in failing to send off Lingard for a second bookable offence (the pull back on Redmond) having been handing out cards like confetti early on. Oriel's challenge was rash but did he actually make contact, I do think Foster should have done better with all three goals even the last was right at him, that said we paid a heavy price for going to sleep in the last few minutes. Overall though very proud of the team (and the owner) a truly great occasion.

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ItchenNorth added 13:34 - Feb 28 I walked into Wembley Stadium hoping that we would put in a real performance and leave with no regrets. I left thinking that we couldn’t have given much more, so what more can you say. The Saints support was brilliant and at the end we were still out singing the Man United support (whom were terrible throughout). When the players came over to the Saints support at the end of the game you knew everyone had given everything and the fans responded again with yet more waving of scarfs and flags. You could sense the passion and pride in the stands. Gutted for sure, but proud to be a Saint on Sunday.

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RogerToye added 13:36 - Feb 28 It is what it is.. Saints go marching on, no blame , we know who is on the ball and who is off it, great support great team and plaudits from Utd as usual especially when they get away with it. Now lets go unbeaten till end of the season.
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