Man City boss: Will Fergie stick with kids for Carling Cup semi-final?

Manchester City boss Mark Hughes believes Sir Alex Ferguson could change his mind and play a more experienced Manchester United team now he knows City are the opposition.

Ferguson has tended to go with Manchester United's talented youngsters in the competition and they have not let him down with the trophy secured last season.

Hughes, however, is not so sure that will be the case after the clubs were thrown together in draw.

He recalled his time in charge of Blackburn in 2006 when they were beaten by United in the last four in two incident-packed games.

Ferguson named the likes of Ryan Giggs, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Louis Saha, Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney in both legs.

Hughes said: "Sir Alex never used to play weakened sides in the competition.

"I seem to recall during my time at Blackburn they were a pretty strong side in the semi-final. We will have to wait and see. That is his decision."

City have not won a trophy in 33 years and were last in a domestic semi-final in 1981.

Hughes said: "We will enjoy it. Over two games we would back ourselves against anybody. We want to get to a Wembley final. This club has not had many experiences of that in recent times.

"We need to be in a domestic semi-final and we want to try and win the competition. I have picked strong teams because it is important. Certainly if we had not done that we might have gone out of the cup because we have had some really hard games.

"We have treated the competition with the respect it deserves. We deserve the reward of a semi-final. We want to go one step further if we can."

 
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