The League Cup was rarely Sir Alex Ferguson's highest priority during his time in charge of Manchester United.
Indeed, in 1994, his selection policy was so controversial that when United played Port Vale there was genuine outcry. As Mark Ogden wrote for the Telegraph in 2013:
An otherwise unremarkable tie earned its place in folklore because Ferguson prompted the local MP to condemn his team selection in parliament because, to paraphrase, it was cheating the Staffordshire public to rest United’s big names in favour of unknown youngsters such as Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and David Beckham.