MANCHESTER UNITED...3 MILWALL...0: Manchester United won the FA Cup with a show of imagination, somehow convincing one another that they were facing a real threat. When teams from a higher division are unexpectedly beaten it is usually because they cannot rouse themselves to their normal competitiveness.

It was therefore to the credit of Alex Ferguson's players that they were so painstaking, so unstinting in their effort and, in the case of Cristiano Ronaldo at least, so irrepressible. For the neutral, of course, the care that the victors took was regrettable.

If there was going to be much fun they really needed to be slipshod, bloated with the complacency of millionaires. Against a United team bent on winning the FA Cup for the 11th time Millwall had neither hope nor a good plan.

The First Division side made the most of a cup run that did not pit them against Premiership opponents until Saturday but the luck of the draw left them without recent experience of footballers of Old Trafford quality. The suspension of Danny Dichio made it absolutely certain that Dennis Wise would pick a conservative line-up with only one forward.

He argued later that the system had worked for Chelsea in the recent draw with United but it was unfair to expect Neil Harris to pass himself off as another Eidur Gudjohnsen. Millwall would have been beaten even with a bolder formation but there is still something awry about a final in which one goalkeeper had no save to make.

The Millwall fans who cheered the parade home to London yesterday were rightly marking the splendid journey to the final rather than anything that happened in Cardiff.

Their only grievance at the Millennium Stadium concerned Ruud van Nistelrooy's second goal in the 81st minute. Ryan Giggs drove the ball across for him to convert and there were claims for offside.

Millwall resistance had been broken just before the interval when Wise failed to respond to Gary Neville's cross and Ronaldo danced in front of him to finish with a downward header. The negligent player-manager was to prove afterwards that he is still more player than manager.

His self-serving claim that he had frozen because of an incorrect shout from Harris was a poor excuse and any other member of the team who tried to fob him off with that explanation would get a scathing reaction. No matter what reassurance his centre-forward yelled, the ball was coming into the danger area and Wise ought to have cleared it.

It was symptomatic of the match that Ronaldo should have been the sharpest figure at that incident. The 19-year-old was refreshingly oblivious to the debate about the contemporary importance of the FA Cup. It meant everything to the Portuguese winger as he luxuriated in the occasion.

The stepovers seemed a nervous tic when he first came to Premiership but his individualistic repertoire is, as Ferguson noted with satisfaction, being put to ever more practical use. If Ronaldo ever gazes across the pitch to study Giggs he will find himself reflecting further on what it takes to build a lasting career.

The teenager may not be as exhilarating once a few hard years have rolled by but he has to learn how to sustain himself as Giggs has done. Ferguson spoke with feeling about the Welshman's "14 years up and down that bloody touchline".

That tribute had an undertow of concern over a footballer who has naturally lost some of his effervescence but there was nothing flat about Giggs on Saturday. When he switched to the right wing, David Livermore brought him down from behind for the penalty that van Nistelrooy lashed home for a two-goal lead in the 65th minute.

Millwall were not good enough to make a satisfactory survey of Manchester United's condition and the 37-year-old Wise, who was not really fit after a calf injury, would certainly have received more than one booking if, for instance, Rob Styles had been officiating rather than Jeff Winter, whose last game this was.

No one could tell on Saturday if United will give Arsenal a better challenge in the Premiership next season. Ferguson reiterated his claim that the Rio Ferdinand suspension was responsible for the recent decline but the manager never seems to realise that this argument amounts to an admission that United are so weak that they cannot afford to be without one centre half.

The club may actually be in a period of development. Although van Nistelrooy collected the man-of-the-match award, it should have gone to Ronaldo and the only faint rival to him was another youngster, Darren Fletcher. The 20-year-old uses the ball scrupulously but, as one run past three opponents demonstrated, it is premature to conclude that he is a mere drudge.

The confidence of United's supporters cannot be wholly restored yet but they must at least be intrigued by a team in the throes of change.

MANCHESTER UTD: Howard (Carroll 84); Gary Neville, Brown, Silvestre, O'Shea, Ronaldo (Solskjaer 84), Fletcher (Butt 84), Keane, Giggs, Scholes, van Nistelrooy. Subs not used: Phil Neville, Djemba-Djemba. Goals: Ronaldo 44, van Nistelrooy 65 pen, 81.

MILLWALL: Marshall; Ryan (Cogan 74), Ward, Lawrence, Elliott, Sweeney, Livermore, Wise (Weston 89), Ifill, Cahill, Harris (McCammon 75). Subs not used: Gueret, Dunne. Booked: Wise.

Referee: J Winter (Cleveland).