Poyetry in Motion. SAFC 1 Manchester City 3: players and fans oustanding

Colin Randall writes: I snapped away last night at the London and SE SAFCSA branch eve-of-final social and today in the approach to the game. I am full of admiration for them, full of contempt for the Tory MP, Robert Halfon, who oafishly tweeted: “Went to London for dinner. Wish I hadn’t. Scumbag football hooligans turn Covent Garden into a disgusting cesspit.” By all accounts of police reaction I heard, our supporters were numerous but good-natured. And as Gus Poyet says in post-match e-mail taking justified pride in the way his players performed, the fans inside Wembley were outstanding. Three-one was a cruel result; City’s second-half recovery was explosive but short and getting to extra time would not have flattered Sunderland ..

Dear Colin,

I said all the way along, I wanted to see a team that showed the fans that we wanted to win the trophy and to have a go out there and I think we did that today.

We did very well, we gave Man City very few chances and we were good on the ball. Then we just hoped that no one would come along with something spectacular, unfortunately Yaya Toure scored an absolutely world class goal and it completely changed the game.

We had a real good go. I made some changes to the side and the players tried their best, we had a couple of half chances near the end and it’s sad that we’ve lost the game.

I told the players that I am very proud of them, they are very disappointed but I couldn’t have asked for any more. Man City had that extra bit of class and it went in their favour today.

The plan we had before the game worked for the first 45 minutes, it was difficult for some players not to be involved today but that’s my job to make decisions and pick the team.

We’re all down right now but we need to make sure we recover this week and come back. We’ve another chance in a cup and for sure we need to do all we can to stay in the Barclays Premier League.

I lost my first-ever final as a player and then came back the next year to win; why can we not do this again?

I want us to take the way we approached the game today into all of our remaining games, if we do I know we’ll be alright for sure.

The fans were outstanding; they were on top of the Man City fans all of the time; they made more noise and they wanted it more.

We couldn’t have approached the game better in my point of view; the players felt what it meant to the fans when we arrived at the ground.

The team bus pulled up and it was an incredible feeling – the noise the fans made, I’m 100% sure they were the best fans today; I’m just disappointed we couldn’t celebrate with them.

All the best,

Gus Poyet