Photo taken by Santeri Viinamäki and available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence
Former MK Dons man Darragh Burns played a part as League 2 Grimsby Town pulled off a famous cup upset by knocking Manchester United out of the Carabao Cup.
The 23-year-old registered an assist and scored two penalties after the Mariners beat the Premier League giants at Blundell Park. Grimsby initially held a 2-0 lead that Manchester United pulled back to 2-2, before the Mariners won 12-11 in a penalty shoot-out.
Burns registered an assist for the home side’s opening goal, with Charles Vernam receiving the Irish winger’s cross before firing in a low shot that beat Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana to give the hosts a 22nd minute lead.
The lead would be doubled when a mistake by Onana lead to the ball being bundled home by Tyrell Warren 8 minutes later, after the former Inter Milan goalkeeper fumbled a Grimsby corner.
A game that then featured a heavy rainstorm would see the visitors claw their way back on level terms, as Bryan Mbuemo made it 2-1 before Harry Maguire’s equaliser in the 89th minute.
Manchester United would miss chances to win it, but with no further goals in 90 minutes, the tie went to penalties.
Burns scored with Grimsby’s second penalty, but it looked as though the tie was about to get away from the League Two side when Clarke Oduor saw his spot-kick saved by Onana.
With every other one of Grimsby’s 5 penalties scored, it meant a successful penalty by Matheus Cunha would see Manchester United book their place in the Third Round.
As it was, however, Cunha saw his penalty saved by home goalkeeper Christy Pym, meaning that the shootout was 4-4 after the first 5 kicks for each side and that it would reach sudden death.
Every other player would score, however, meaning after 11 penalties each with 10 scored by each side, the shootout carried on.
After each side scored their 12th penalty, this meant Burns would step up for a second time, and he would see his spot-kick beat Onana.
That would end up being crucial, as Mbuemo hit the crossbar with Manchester United’s 13th penalty, allowing Grimsby to win the tie and pull off a famous upset in the competition.
Grimsby will face Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough in the Third Round, with the South Yorkshire club having booked their place in Round 3 by pulling off their own upset after beating Premier League side Leeds United on penalties.
Burns had joined MK Dons in 2022, with the winger joining the Dons from Irish side St Patrick’s Athletic.
However, the Irishman struggled for game time with the Dons, making just 24 appearances in all competitions in two and a half years contracted to the club, with his last league appearance coming in February 2023.
After returning to Ireland on loan with Shamrock Rovers in 2024, Burns moved to Grimsby in January 2025.