Only winners are remembered stresses Given

[Mark (Blue Army)]

Shay Given can’t wait for the Carling Cup encounter with United but has warned teammates that no one remembers semi final losers.

The Blues keeper who, in the absence of Kolo Toure, was captain at Boro on Saturday believes that City have a great chance of making it a miserable few days for the neighbours who crashed out of the FA Cup at home to Leeds on Sunday.

“The fans are excited and so are the players,” he declared. “These should be two red-hot encounters.

"Semi finals are great but people only
remember the cup winners. We are all
set up to achieve something here. We
want to win a trophy"

Roberto Mancini is surveying an over-long injury list in the build up to the first leg at the City of Manchester Stadium but Given knows enough about the new boss to know that he will not panic.

“He is quite a cool and relaxed guy but he knows what he wants from the team,” declared Given who has managed three clean sheets in succession under the Italian.

“Since he arrived we have worked hard on defending as a unit. We have worked a lot on shadow play and where he wants everyone to be when we don’t have the ball. He is adamant about how he wants the team to set up. I have been impressed by him.

“I owe Mark Hughes a lot for bringing me to the club but as a professional you have to move on. The owners made the decision to change and they pay the wages.

“The aim is still to try and win something this season. We made a good start in the FA Cup at the weekend and we a close to a final in the Carling Cup.

“We have only lost twice all season so we are doing ok. One of those was against United and I have to admit it took a long while to get over that result. We played well that day without any reward. Hopefully it will be different on Wednesday night.”

from mcfc.co.uk

[BlueMoonAwoken]

my quote about shay given is at the bottom of that article on the main site WOO HOO :)