ON A filthy night in south Yorkshire, Sheffield Wednesday and Manchester United contrived 90 minutes of hugely-entertaining, clean and skilful football and ultimately neither were flattered by their Premiership point.
Wednesday jumped two places to eighth in the table but must be cursing the considerable figure of Peter Schmeichel, who made half a dozen vital saves. United, on the other hand, could argue that, after Paul Scholes had equalised Benito Carbone's beautiful 56th-minute opener with an equally-impressive strike, they finished the stronger.
The start was delayed to accommodate the large numbers stuck in traffic. Those who still missed the kick-off also missed Manchester United's Christmas novelty: a team without David Beckham, presumably rested, not dropped, for the first time in the Premier League this season.
This meant a role for Paul Scholes, but in a midfield that included Ronnie Johnsen, and that left Ole Gunnar Solskjaer alone up front, except for the odd excursion from Eric Cantona.
Initially, this seemed an ideal plan as Kevin Pressman dived to save from Johnsen and then Ryan Giggs burst free from Johnsen's pass and Solskjaer's dummy, only to put a sloppy side-footed shot wide.
Three minutes had gone, but it was to be half an hour before United carried a similar threat, Pressman back-flipping to tip over Scholes's flying header.
Between and afterwards though, in an enthralling first half, all the danger came from Wednesday. And it was far from cavalry-charge football, with Carbone an intelligent baton master.
Five times Schmeichel was forced into significant action with Graham Hyde, Guy Whittingham and Peter Atherton all clean through. So too was Mark Pembridge, but he blasted over and then fluffed a sitter from four yards after the goalkeeper had parried his original effort.
Schmeichel's best save, however, was probably the one he knew least about. In the 17th minute a Carbone free-kick skidded off the greasy turf and caught Schmeichel around the windpipe.
Wednesday were able to achieve such domination because they had better shape and balance than United, a greater fluency in their passing and extreme industry. Eleven minutes after half-time, it paid off.
Orlando Trustfull, having replaced Hyde just before the interval, moved towards the United area and slipped a cute ball to Carbone on the edge of the D. The diminutive Italian sized up the situation instantly and curled the ball round Schmeichel's sprawl.
At the same time, United began to demonstrate a new urgency.
Within five minutes, Scholes, having pulled a fine save from Pressman, brought them level. The goal had scrappy origins a long kick followed by a mis-kick from Steve Nicol but Scholes's left-foot drive was far from imperfect and flew into the top corner with Pressman nowhere.
David Pleat felt Sheffield Wednesday had let United off the hook. "We had the clearest chances and we showed a fair bit of quality, but we needed to get our noses in front in the first-half," said Pleat.
"(Gary) Pallister and co were in trouble in the first half - there's no doubt about that. Maybe United didn't expect us to come at them with such verve."
Ferguson stormed away grim-faced from Hillsborough without saying a word. The latest stalemate left United in seventh place, nine points adrift of leaders Liverpool going into the hectic Christmas programme. The faltering champions have now taken a mere nine points from the last 24 on offer.
Wednesday, on the other hand, are in useful form and they extended their unbeaten run to eight games.
Pleat predicted that more performances like the one which frustrated United would ensure no repeat of last season's struggle to avoid relegation.
"I'd like to think that if we sustain that type of performance we won't have to worry about the hot-torn end of the table.
"We've played with tremendous camaraderie for the last two games. We'd like to have won it tonight but we didn't take our chances.
"We got bodies in the box. Graham Hyde got in there twice during the first-half but I thought he might have done better for us."
