A L B I O N G A Z E T T E - ( xxv )<\/p>\n\n\n\n
11 \u00a0 JANUARY \u00a0 2026 <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n MANCHESTER \u00a0 UNITED \u00a0 1 \u00a0 \u00a0 BRIGHTON \u00a0 & \u00a0 HOVE \u00a0 ALBION \u00a0 2 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n EMIRATES \u00a0 FA \u00a0 CUP, \u00a0 THIRD \u00a0 ROUND \u00a0<\/strong> -<\/p>\n\n\n\n at \u00a0 OLD \u00a0 TRAFFORD, \u00a0 MANCHESTER.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For the second time in four days the Albion travelled to Manchester, this time to meet\u00a0United at Old Trafford in the Third Round of the Emirates FA Cup, the match being\u00a0broadcast by TNT Sports, Talksport and BBC Radio Sussex Sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last time out the Seagulls had drawn 1-1 at Manchester City in the Premier on the 7 January and for their visit to Old Trafford the Albion made six changes to their starting line-up from the City game, with Jason Steele, Joel Veltman, Diego Coppola, Olivier Boscagli, Brajan Gruda and Danny Welbeck coming in for Bart Verbruggen, Jan Paul Van Hecke, Lewis Dunk, Maxim De Cuyper, Yasin Ayari and Kaoru Mitoma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In their previous outing United had drawn 2-2 at Burnley in the Premier on the 7 January and for Albion's visit they made three changes to their starting line-up from the Burnley game, with Leny Yoro, Kobbie Mainoo and Mason Mount replacing Ayden Heaven, Luke Shaw and Casemiro. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just prior to the Burnley game United had sacked Head Coach\u00a0Ruben Amorim and at the helm against Albion was Youth Team Coach Darren Fletcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was Albion's second visit to Old Trafford this season, having gone down 2-4 in the\u00a0Premier on the 25 October 2025. \u00a0United conjured up the first two chances of the game, as first Diogo Dalot found himself in the clear but Albion keeper Jason Steele made a\u00a0superb save to keep out the full-back's shot, then Steele made another excellent save when deflecting Bruno Fernandes shot from distance. \u00a0On 12 minutes Albion took the\u00a0lead with a goal of quality when Jack Hinshelwood, Ferdi Kadioglu and Danny Welbeck combined to set-up Brajan Gruda who shot home from close-in to put the Seagulls ahead. 1-0<\/strong>. \u00a0United keeper Senne Lammens then passed the ball to Welbeck right in front of his goal but Lammens smothered the striker's shot to spare his blushes. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was now end to\u00a0end stuff as Joel Veltman and Welbeck saw their efforts miss the target and at the other\u00a0end efforts by Fernandes and Matheus Cunha suffered a similar fate. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Half-time 1-0.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Second-half saw the game continue in the same vein as the first-half and on 64 minutes the Albion scored a second as Gruda's pass found Welbeck on the edge of the box and the former United man smashed home a superb left-foot shot to put his team two-up. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was Welbeck's ninth goal of the season. \u00a02-0.<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n United pulled a goal back on 85 minutes when Slovenian striker Benjamin Sesko headed home from Fernandes corner - game on. 2-1<\/strong>. \u00a0There was still time for United to be reduced to 10-men after young substitute Shea Lacey picked up two yellow cards in the space of two minutes and was promptly sent off by Referee Simon Hooper. \u00a0The Seagulls comfortably saw out the final minutes to seal themselves a spot in the Fourth Round. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Final-score 2-1.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Match stats:<\/strong> VERDICT<\/strong> \u00a0- \u00a0Another excellent performance by the Albion in Manchester and their reward\u00a0is a trip to Liverpool in the Fourth Round. \u00a0Danny Welbeck was the stand-out player for the Seagulls as he notched his ninth goal of the season in all competitions, followed closely by keeper Jason Steele.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Albion line-up (4-2-3-1):<\/strong>- \u00a0Jason STEELE; \u00a0Joel VELTMAN (Yasin AYARI 77), Diego\u00a0COPPOLA, Olivier BOSCAGLI, Ferdi KADIOGLU; \u00a0Jack HINSHELWOOD, Pascal GROSS; Brajan GRUDA (Tommy WATSON 92), Georginio RUTTER (Charalampos KOSTOULAS 83), Diego GOMEZ (Jan Paul VAN HECKE 77); \u00a0Danny WELBECK (Kaoru MITOMA 77). Referee:<\/strong> \u00a0Simon Hooper (Wiltshire). \u00a0<\/strong> BBC Sport Player of the Match: \u00a0Danny Welbeck (Albion).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Attendance: \u00a073888.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NEXT \u00a0GAME:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 19 \u00a0JANUARY \u00a02026 \u00a0- \u00a0AFC \u00a0BOURNEMOUTH \u00a0- \u00a0HOME \u00a0- \u00a0PREMIER \u00a0LEAGUE \u00a0- KICK-OFF \u00a020.00. \u00a0\"LIVE\" \u00a0ON \u00a0SKY \u00a0SPORTS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A L B I O N G A Z E T T E - ( xxv ) 11 \u00a0 JANUARY \u00a0 2026 MANCHESTER \u00a0 UNITED \u00a0 1 \u00a0 \u00a0 BRIGHTON \u00a0 & \u00a0 HOVE \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jack-kayes-football-reports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5538,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5537\/revisions\/5538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00a0Albion had 13 attempts at goal, with 4 on target and won 1 corner, free-kicks conceded - 15. \u00a0
Manchester United had 19 attempts at goal, with 8 on target and won 6 corners, free-kicks conceded - 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subs not used: \u00a0Bart VERBRUGGEN (G\/K), Lewis DUNK, Harry HOWELL, Charlie TASKER.
Manchester United line-up (4-2-3-1):<\/strong>- \u00a0Senne LAMMENS; \u00a0Diogo DALOT, Leny YORO, Lisandro MARTINEZ (Harry MAGUIRE 79), Patrick DORGU; \u00a0Manuel UGARTE (CASEMIRO 79), Kobbie MAINOO (Joshua ZIRKZEE 62); \u00a0Mason MOUNT (Shea LACEY 62), Bruno\u00a0FERNANDES (Capt), Matheus CUNHA; \u00a0Benjamin SESKO. \u00a0
Subs not used: \u00a0Altay BAYINDIR (G\/K), Jack FLETCHER, Tyler FLETCHER, Ayden HEAVEN, Tyrell MALACIA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fourth Official:<\/strong> \u00a0Paul Tierney.
Red Card: <\/strong>\u00a0Shea Lacey (Manchester United).
Yellow Cards: <\/strong>\u00a0Manchester United: \u00a04 \u00a0- \u00a0Shea Lacey (2), Harry Maguire, Kobbie Mainoo.
Possession:<\/strong> \u00a0Albion \u00a0- \u00a040%. \u00a0Manchester United \u00a0- \u00a060%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n