Sven: We should have killed the balloons

Balloons not to blame - Eriksson

Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson is refusing to blame balloons bobbling on the pitch for his side's 2-1 FA Cup defeat to Sheffield United.

Luton Shelton's opener for United came after Michael Ball failed to clear the ball as it rolled through the balloons.



"I've never seen a goal like that before," said Eriksson. "The ball changed direction and the balloons played a one-two with Michael Ball.

"But we should not blame the balloons as we should have done better."

Eriksson remained in good spirits about the incident but revealed he had repeatedly asked the fourth official to have the balloons, brought by City's away fans, removed.

"We asked the fourth official to tell the referee (Alan Wiley) to stop the game and take away the balloons or kill them," said Eriksson.

"But the referee told our goalkeeper Joe Hart to do it during the game which is not fair. You can't ask a player to clear the pitch when the ball is live."

Sheffield United manager Bryan Robson admitted the balloons definitely worked in his side's favour.

He said: "Normally, goalkeepers like to clear the area but fortunately for us he didn't and that helped us score our first goal."

Robson, who was under intense pressure following last weekend's derby defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, was pleased that his side had luck on their side.

"It was about time we had a bit of fortune," said Robson, who has won the FA Cup three times as Manchester United captain.

"We did ride our luck at certain times but our counter-attack play was very good.

"We have been missing far too many chances but today they went in for us. We owed our fans a big performance and we produced that."

Eriksson conceded that his players lacked the fighting spirit to claw back the game after falling two goals behind.

"We were not up to the battle," said the former England manager. "We lost too many balls and they made life difficult for us.

"If you are not prepared to play good football you have to battle especially in the FA Cup and against a lower league club; and we didn't handle that very well."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/7212290.stm

We should have let the Havant fans bring some balloons yesterday.

We might have scored first then.

Haha, did you actually see it? Svens got a right to be angry, the ball sent the balloon flying and Ball was completely put off. Fair play to him for not complaining though.

Ironically they were light blue balloons, perhaps chucked on by City supporters?

Yep, they were thrown on by the city fans. A very big reminder that stupid jester hats and balloons don't belong in football. 

This as got to go down as one of the funniest things thats happened on a football pitch.

the first goal of sheffield was nice

poor Hart

Why did they have balloons anyway? They were the away team! How stupid.

"..or kill them" haha alright Sven calm down!

Just seen this for the 1st time, bit strange really - in effect the City fans scored an own goal!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXmVqbcSVqc

They've certainly blown that one up for their team...

Has the balloon i mean bubble burst for city?

West Ham Fans: We're forever blowing bubbles

Man City Fans: We're forever blowing baloons

also described as the old Baloon 1-2

I can't remember now but was the baloon offside pmsl ?