After two disappointing home results, Liverpool got their Champions League campaign back on track by grinding out a hard fought victory at Old Trafford. For the third time in four years Danny Murphy was the match winner as even Alex Ferguson found little cause for complaint.
It shows how poor a season both these great rivals have had that Sky didn't deem the fixture important enough to televise and for the first time since 1992-3 we met at 3pm on a Saturday. A dearth of pubs near Old Trafford and a lack of ale on sale inside the ground meant that our section was full half an hour before kick off. This led to referee Mike Riley, who had awarded United ten penalties last season, being given a hot reception as he warmed up in front of our fans.
Strangely the atmosphere in our end was quite muted when the game began, perhaps everybody had worn themselves out beforehand. United's fans, as usual were hardly heard and didn't sing much at all except "fourteen years" and "you're not famous anymore".
The first half was a very cagey one. Steve Finnan was surprisingly recalled to the side at right midfield despite having had no match practice since his injury lay off and it was a tactical masterstroke. It helped stifle Ronaldo, with the Portuguese youngster being full of fancy trickery but also unable to add the killer ball.
The tactic paid off so much that he was switched to the right for much of the second half.
This didn't mean that Finnan spent most of his time defending however and he looked useful going forward, certainly not worse than Diouf would have done. He had one of our few shots on goal in the first half when his curling effort from 25 yards went just over the bar in the fourteenth minute.
Our best chance of the first period had fell to Michael Owen just a few moments earlier. He ran on to John Arne Riise's long throw down the left flank but shot straight across the face of goal. Owen was playing as a lone striker and as a result nobody else was far forward enough to rake advantage as Tim Howard had been well beaten.
United didn't create much in the way of chances themselves. Lous Saha drilled one effort into the ground meaning it bounced harmlessly into Jerzy Dudek's hands and Darren Fletcher shot well wide when he had a clear route to goal. Their best opportunity came in the dying seconds of the half when Ryan Giggs went past Jamie Carragher, only to blaze the ball high and wide.
United fans may point to the fact that Van Nistelrooy wasn't playing, but as they were all more than eight yards out its unlikely he would have converted them anyway.
Although a 0-0 draw would have been a reasonable result after recent losses one point really wasn't going to be enough and after the break we increased the tempo a little. We had the balance of the early play in the second period and on the hour Gerard Houllier's intention to go for the win was signalled when Vladimir Smicer came on for Finnan.
Vladi got stuck into the game straight away but the real star was Steven Gerrard, who was again driving forward from the centre.
In the 62nd minute after United had only half cleared a corner Gerrard took control, burst into the left hand side of the box and was brought down by a reckless challenge from Gary Neville. Mike Riley, last years villain had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Despite the rarity of united conceding a penalty at Old Trafford there were no protests whatsoever and the only problem now was who would take it. United hadn't conceded a league penalty at home since 1994-5 so history wasn't on our side given our recent track record with spot kicks.
But Murphy was first to the ball and oozed confidence as he placed it on the spot. There was none of the expected gamesmanship from the home side and he coolly despatched the kick past Howard. Their fans stood open mouthed as Murphy put his finger to his lips in celebration whilst total delirium broke out in our corner. Once again he had proved to be the hero and proved that lightning can actually strike three times.
Now all we had to do was endure a thirty minute onslaught, which never came. Apart from one brief flurry around the 75th minute United hardly threatened. Giggs hit both posts with a brilliant low volley, Solskjaer flung himself at a cross and failed to connect properly and Saha meekly headed wide.
Otherwise they didn't look like scoring and their fans knew it, many of them heading for the exits well before full time. Although it later transpired this was to get ready to ambush us on the way out.
As someone who witnessed the 1988-9 collapse when we let in three in the last ten minutes, as well as the 1998-9 injury time cup heartbreak, I've learnt not to rest on my laurels at Old Trafford. But this was as easy as it's ever been and there is no way United are 20+ points better than us. Arsenal may be out of reach next season and who knows who Chelsea may tempt to Stamford Bridge, but there's no reason why we can't seek to overhaul United.
For far too long they've been living on reputation alone and hopefully other teams in the Premiership will learn from Portsmouth, Wolves and Southampton that they can be beaten and needn't be shown any respect.
Despite United's lack of penetration up front, there was little chance of a gung ho attempt to get a second goal. We may complain about clinging on for 1-0 wins at Molineux but Old Trafford still is a different story. Houllier shored up the midfield for the last ten minutes by bringing on Cheyrou for Kewell and Heskey for Owen, probably the only time our number eight has been cheered onto the pitch.
It was no surprise that three minutes of injury time were added, despite no medical staff having been onto the pitch. But although United were down to two defenders by now there was still no last surge towards our goal, a weak Saha shot being the only attempt in the closing minutes. Even Ferguson had no excuses as he admitted his team were lacking in many areas.
Celebrations at the end were sweet and lets hope we don't come crashing back down to earth on Sunday against Middlesbrough. Houllier called it a great result and a great performance against a great team. I'd prefer not to get too carried away, it was certainly a great result and good performance, but United aren’t a great team anymore. That's not to devalue the win however. For all the problems we've had this season, Houllier has a habit of playing the occasional trump card, giving us memorable wins at Everton, Chelsea and now United.
Fourth just about remains in our hands, just.
