Manchester Utd - 2 Newcastle -1: It was easy to imagine the scene in Manchester United's dressing room, 45 minutes before kick-off, as news filtered through of Newcastle's skeletal line-up. With a reserve full-back making his debut against Ryan Giggs and the usual right-back playing in central midfield, Alex Ferguson's players might have been tempted into a few high-fives there and then had it not been for the moody guy in the corner with the captain's armband.
As it turned out, this was a far more laboured victory than in their encounter a week earlier in Cardiff, and substantially more problematic than might have been anticipated given Graeme Souness's list of absentees. Newcastle led at half-time and had begun to dare imagine their first victory at Old Trafford since 1972 when the match was turned upside down by a moment of inspiration from Wayne Rooney so sumptuous that only the most ardent Geordie will resent the frequency with which it is replayed on our television screens.
Rooney has conjured up a bewitching portfolio this season, but nothing comes close to the volley that speared off his right boot into Shay Given's net. It was a moment that exhausted all the usual superlatives and one that precipitated a comeback culminating in Wes Brown heading in the winner from a Giggs corner.
"It was a phenomenal strike," said a grateful Ferguson whose tone was one of relief rather than elation, with the sense of jubilation tempered by an injury to their left-back Gabriel Heinze, who was visibly in distress as he was taken off on a stretcher, having crumpled in a heap after a seemingly innocuous aerial challenge with Shola Ameobi. Heinze was taken to hospital where X-rays on his right ankle revealed no fracture, but he must be considered a doubt for next month's FA Cup final against Arsenal.
Ferguson's strangely sombre mood might also have had something to do with the fact that, yet again, he was left to reflect on the absence of a goalkeeper with satisfactory credentials for a team of United's aspirations.
When, after 27 minutes, Phil Neville laid the ball across his penalty area, Tim Howard simply had to clear the ball upfield. It was the type of routine clearance he must make dozens of times in training every week but, inexplicably, he failed to lift the ball off the ground and scuffed it no further than 20 yards. Darren Ambrose had nipped in front of Quinton Fortune and set off towards goal, taking a quick return pass from Ameobi before darting between Brown and Heinze into the penalty area. As Howard charged towards him, desperate to make amends, the Newcastle midfielder smartly picked his spot with his left foot.
By half-time Ferguson was faced with the queasy possibility of his side scoring only one goal in six league matches for the first time since a banner was unfurled in the Stretford End in December 1989 proclaiming: "Three years of excuses and we're still crap - tara Fergie." The second-half recovery spared him from such reminiscences but he is still acutely aware that since the Premiership began in 1992 United have averaged 77 league goals and, in 1999-2000, greedily accumulated 97. With four games remaining they have managed only 50 this season and are still 14 short of last year's dreary total of 64. "I just can't understand it," said Ferguson, but perhaps he should centre his inquiries on his decision two seasons ago to begin most matches with only one striker.
Ruud van Nistelrooy had twisted his ankle in training on Saturday so his place was taken here by Alan Smith, with Rooney operating in a roaming role between midfield and attack. Yet for long spells Newcastle's defence protected Given far better than in Cardiff.
Rooney, indeed, had been only a peripheral figure until the game's defining moment, when Roy Keane sent a long punt forwards and Ramage's header fell from the sky 25 yards from goal. Only a striker of supreme confidence would have attempted the shot, and precious few would have executed it so exquisitely. The timing of the shot was immaculate, the power and the precision too much for Given.
