Dalglish’s return to English football was shaped by two key decisions from World Cup final referee Howard Webb, the first of which ked to Ryan Giggs’ winner.
“The penalty is a joke,” said Dalglish. “I have seen the replay and unless they have changed the rules it is no penalty.
“The other one, I cannot see that as a red card either.
“In the dressing room before the game someone said to me the game’s not changed that much.
“I said `I thought it was a non-contact sport’. Maybe I was right.”
After the game Dalglish also swept the concerns that he has been away too long to one side and also batted away a question about how he would deal with the pressure, having famously quit in 1991 because of the emotional stress brought on in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster which took a great toll on him personally.
“I’ll deal with the pressure the same way everyone else deals with it,” he said. “You go about your job to the best of your ability and what happens happens.
“How do you know you can do anything unless you try it? I’ll give it everything I’ve got to put this club in a better position. Whether that will be sufficient for everyone I don’t know but I can’t see into the future.”
Chelsea 7-0 Ipswich Town
Carlo Ancelotti: “We needed to have this kind of performance. The result was good and we did a lot of things well in this game – the performance of the team, the strikers scoring again. We don’t have to be excited. But, obviously, with this victory, our confidence will improve. We have to wait to say everything is okay. (Danny Sturridge) deserved to play. He played well, scored, is a good player and a good striker, very dangerous. In the future, he’ll have opportunities. We have a lot of games in this period coming up.”
Ipswich caretaker Ian McParland: “I knew what was going to happen today. The boys are a bit shellshocked with the manager going. I’d like to think it would have made a difference (if Roy Keane were still here). For half an hour, we were doing okay. We were in the game. We gave them three bad goals. I’ve never been beaten like that. It hurts my pride but I’ll bounce back. Let’s not forget who the lads were playing against. Some Premier League clubs were beat seven or eight here last year, so maybe we’re in good company.”
Leicester City 2-2 Manchester City
Sven-Goran Eriksson: “We came up against one of the best teams in the country so we must be happy. We tried to win the game but you have to be careful because if you open yourself up you can get caught, but they did very well today. I am looking forward to it (the replay) and it is a great experience for all the players. It will be difficult (to get a result) but why not?”
Roberto Mancini: “We had a lot of chances in the second half but this is the cup, it’s important we understand the competition, and to win it we must be better than tonight. (Sol) Bamba is very tall and physical and next time we must pay more attention to him. (Joe Hart) has saved us a lot of times, but it’s important that we have another chance.”
Tottenham 3-0 Charlton
Tottenham assistant manager Kevin Bond: “I thought it was a terrific performance from (Andros Townsend) making his debut. If Harry feels he can bring someone in to improve the squad then he said he would look at it. (But) looking at Andros, it looks like we might benefit from having him around. Maybe we were predictable in the first half and you need someone with that something different to unlock the door. (Luka Modric) certainly has that.”
Charlton caretaker Keith Peacock: “I’m proud of the way the players performed. As soon as I saw who was coming on the pitch at half-time, I thought we would have a problem. You love watching him on the ball, but not when you are playing against him. The little pieces I’ve seen of him, and what I saw in this game, he is right up there with the best.”
PA Sport
