West Ham United

If this was the evening the manager labelled "Avram Can't" by the sceptical Upton Park faithful convinced them that, indeed, he can, it may also have signalled that Manchester United's squad lacks depth of quality.

West Ham were magnificent in knocking out the holders, who had not lost a League Cup tie since Coventry defeated them in September 2007, and Grant, their Israeli manager, deserves credit for taking his club to a first semi-final in this competition in 21 years.

"It is special because Manchester United is Manchester United," he said. "To perform like this against the best team in the country – they have not lost so many games – and to score four goals – what more can I ask? I was surprised and not surprised. I was with the players a long time and some games here we played well and didn't score. Today we played fantastic, scored and could have scored more. We kept a clean sheet, so I am very happy. Of course before the game I didn't think we would do this. I thought we could win but not by this score."

Yet for Sir Alex Ferguson there was open criticism of those players he chose to defend the trophy. From the team that routed Blackburn Rovers 7-1 on Saturday at Old Trafford the only surviving starter was Anderson, and Ferguson did not require Dimitar Berbatov – who claimed five of those – nor Wayne Rooney even to make the journey south.

"I didn't expect that, that's for sure. If you analyse the goals, they were absolutely too soft. There were young players out there and there is probably a lesson for them in it. We didn't expect that. Terrible goals. We had one or two half-chances but the goals killed it. You can't give goals away like that at this level."

Jonny Evans, who was pulled off by the Scot near the end, was the chief culprit and he has had more than 50 games for United. Yet he and a defence that also included Chris Smalling, Fábio Da Silva and John O'Shea, just could not handle Victor Obinna, who had a hand in all four West Ham goals, or Carlton Cole and Jonathan Spector, the two players who filled the score-sheet.

After 16 minutes Obinna thought he was the first to rock United when finishing beyond Tomasz Kuszczak. But the assistant referee flagged correctly to disallow this as the ball had deflected off the US-born Spector, who was offside.

This, predictably, had the home support incandescent. But moments later their mood began lifting as the American-Nigerian combo got down to work. Obinna flipped up a ball that looped into the area from the left and Spector ghosted in to head home.

Shortly the former Manchester United trainee Spector created and scored a second with, again, a vital cameo from Obinna. Ostensibly playing as West Ham's holding midfielder, Spector ran at the visitors. After forcing them to back off he played in Obinna and, when he was challenged, Spector, who had continued on, smashed the rebound beyond Kuszczak.

Obinna also forced the Polish keeper to save sharply low to his left before the break and West Ham walked off to cheers from fans convinced they were about to knock out the winners of this competition from the past two seasons.

Ferguson had spoken of claiming it for a third successive year and he indicated his intent by replacing Bébé with Federico Macheda for the second half. His players responded initially, with Darren Fletcher unable to keep one attempt from distance low enough to trouble Robert Green.

But, on 56 minutes, any hopes of clawing back West Ham's lead were extinguished. Obinna, once more, suggested that, if he stays fit, then West Ham have a fair prospect of avoiding relegation. The on-loan Internazionale forward raced down the left before standing the ball up for Cole. His leap beat Evans, the header left Kuszczak no chance.

Dreamland then became tinged with delirium for Grant and his gang when Cole added his second. Obinna turned provider yet again. He slid the ball into the England striker and Cole turned to remove the hapless Evans as a factor before he slotted the ball home for 4-0 and an end to United's 29-match unbeaten run.

Ferguson added of his young charges: "We are investing in them, we've always done that and they will come out of this and remember today. It's a quarter-final tie and we had a real good opportunity of winning the cup again."

Now that prospect is West Ham's.

This is not a news report and may contain views expressed by the author which are not supported by GNM.