Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed his ambition to break his side’s nine year run without an FA Cup trophy.

The Red Devils cruised to a comfortable 4-1 home victory over visiting Fulham in the fourth round, sealing his side’s place in the next round of the cup.

A Chicharito double as well as goals from Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney proved too much for Martin Jol’s side, despite Aaron Hughes’ late consolation for the visitors.

The United manager has branded this season’s FA Cup as “an important trophy” for the club, and is aware that a big effort from his squad will be needed in order to win it for the first time in nine years.

“The FA Cup’s an important trophy for us this season,” Sir Alex told Sky Sports. “We haven’t won it for almost 10 years, so we really need to have a big performance this year.

“Rio Ferdinand’s never won an FA Cup medal – so we really need to do something about that.

“I think we respected Fulham because we played a very strong team today. It was a good performance.”

Ryan Giggs has echoed Ferguson’s ambition to lift this season’s FA Cup, stating that his team-mates are also “desperate” to win the competition.

“It means a lot,” Giggs said. “We’ve not done as well as we should have done in the last eight, nine years.

“There’s a lot of players desperate to win it. With the history we’ve got in the competition, we should be there, we should be getting to finals, so hopefully this will be the year.”