Sky Sports were forced to repeatedly apologise after a hilarious X-rated interview with Fleetwood Town’s victorious EFL Cup stars.
The League Two side pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the competition’s history after defeating Premier League champions Arsenal on penalties following a 1-1 draw in normal time.
The Cod Army scored all of their five spot kicks, and Jay Lynch saved Bruno Guimaraes’ penalty to ensure they progressed.
Lynch was then joined by Conor Haughey, who scored the match-winning effort, in a wholesome but hilarious post-match interview with Sky Sports.
When asked what was going through his head before the decisive moment, Haughey had a slip of the tongue as he said: ‘I don’t know.
‘Pick my spot, hit top corner and run like f***. It’s just mental. The boys, I’m so proud of them. It just shows how good the team are.’
Sky Sports were forced to repeatedly apologise after a hilarious X-rated interview with Fleetwood Town star Conor Haughey
Haughey (L) scored the winning penalty on the greatest night in the League Two side’s history
Touchline reporter Juliette Ferrington immediately apologised for the language, before she did so again at the end of the interview as Haughey awkwardly looked at her and the camera.
When the coverage went back to the studio, Sky Sports then apologised twice more for the language, leaving some fans confused.
Meanwhile, in the pitchside interview, Lynch, who also made several key saves in normal time, tried to put into words what the victory meant to him and his team-mates.
‘My voice has gone from organising the defence,’ he said. ‘The whole team throughout the game was magnificent. To beat the English champions – credit to these lads.
‘We took heart from Grimsby beating Man Utd last year. We kind of compared it.
‘It was a typical night in Fleetwood. We were expecting a storm, we knew the conditions would be horrible, so we thought it might go in our favour.
‘It’s amazing for the club and the town. Honestly it means everything to everyone.’
The Gunners were left reeling after Tuesday night’s staggering result, with fans suffering an almighty meltdown outside the ground and on social media.
Diehard Arsenal fan Piers Morgan hit out at Fleetwood’s ‘thuggish’ star Harrison Neal after his overzealous challenge on Max Dowman, 16, sparked a furious reaction from the youngster – leading to his sending off.
‘No way is that a straight red,’ his X post began. ‘Dowman was mown down in a thuggish way, and reacted like anyone would when someone nearly broke their leg.
‘Blaming a 16-year-old kid for Arsenal’s abject humiliation is also ridiculous. None of our players turned up.’
AFTV regular Tai echoed Morgan’s sentiments, branding Fleetwood’s tackles in general as ‘disgusting’ and that Dowman is right to react with the likes of former players such as Aaron Ramsey and Eduardo being on the receiving end of leg-breaking tackles in the past.
‘You can criticise Max, but Max is 16. He’s seen that. Is he going to wait for his leg to be broken? The challenges that they were doing were absolutely disgraceful. This is disgusting,’ Tai told the AFTV YouTube channel.
It was a woeful night for the Gunners, who suffered one of the biggest shock defeats in the competition’s history
‘The ref was not doing his job so now what we have is a situation where players again endanger other players’ career. Aaron [Ramsey] nearly had his leg amputated. Eduardo nearly had his leg amputated.
‘I expect players to not endanger other players’ careers. Max is 16. He does not want to get his leg broken like happened to Aaron and Eduardo. Now, you can say Max is wrong but Max is trying to defend himself.
‘The referee did not do his job, and it is scandalous. It’s disgraceful. And I’m disgusted that we’ve come here to face this. Fleetwood Town should be ashamed of themselves because that’s a tackle that endangers our players careers.’
While Tai was unhappy with the refereeing display, his fellow AFTV member Julian chose to blame the pitch dimensions for the visitors’ defeat at Highbury Stadium, home of League Two Fleetwood.
‘It’s 102metres long, the Premier League is 105m long: it’s just under three per cent difference,’ Julian quipped.
‘When you have a margin of that kind of level, it is only small but it can make a difference. And what that allowed Fleetwood to do was to make it easier for them to condense the play on a smaller pitch – which they’re used to playing on.
‘We’re not talking about the main reason why they lost, we’re talking about the small margins and the smaller margins tonight was three metres less in length in the pitch. It’s one of the smaller reasons.’
