Manchester United were dispatched from the FA Cup here yesterday afternoon on a sea of bubbles of the West Ham kind. A piece of cool finishing by Paolo di Canio 15 minutes from the end of a tie notable more for the quality of its passing than for much incisiveness in front of goal took Harry Redknapp's side to Sunderland in the fifth round.
For the moment West Ham will be concerned less with their chances of casting a further shadow over the Stadium of Light, where they drew 1-1 in September, than with basking in the afterglow of yesterday's victory for skill, discipline and judgment allied to tactical nous. It was hard to believe that before yesterday they had lost on 11 successive visits to Old Trafford.
Not that their triumph defied credibility. In fact, for those who had witnessed the way Liverpool ended Manchester United's two-year-old unbeaten home Premiership record before Christmas there was logic in the result. Redknapp's side outmanoeuvred, even outwitted Alex Ferguson's team in similar areas.
The Manchester United manager accepted defeat graciously enough, praised West Ham's performance and wondered aloud if this might be their season to win the FA Cup. But his complaint that the pitch had been trampled by 26 men in November's Rugby League World Cup - "I can't believe that the biggest club in the world has to stage bloody rugby; it's an utter disgrace" - sounded a little wan in view of the quality of football achieved by West Ham's youthful midfield.
The longer the match progressed the more the ability of Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Frank Lampard to keep the ball and create space behind Roy Keane and Nicky Butt echoed the way Steven Gerrard and the Liverpool midfield had denied Manchester United possession six weeks earlier. Cole in particular must have impressed Sven-Goran Eriksson, who will shortly be picking his first England squad.
Since Redknapp's lowly Bournemouth team had knocked out Ron Atkinson's Manchester United in the third round in 1984 there was a vague sort of precedent for yesterday's result. Then again, West Ham had lost so limply at Old Trafford on New Year's Day that even avoiding another defeat would have been a surprise.
This time Redknapp's players set out to avoid conceding the possession and space they had surrendered so meekly in earlier games. Before half-time and for a period after it, with Cole and Di Canio tied to largely defensive roles and Frederic Kanoute little more than a token attacking force, the London side barely threatened Fabien Barthez.
That was the period when Manchester United should have taken the initiative, for what few clear chances there were came their way. With Ryan Giggs popping up all over the place it seemed only a matter of time before Teddy Sheringham or Andy Cole would find a way past the visitors' back three, and once it became evident that Shaka Hislop's movements in the West Ham goal were restricted by a knee injury there seemed little possibility of Ferguson's side failing to score.
Yet with Redknapp's midfield falling back to help the defenders, little came through to trouble Hislop, and when Manchester United did create opportunities their shots were off target. "You run risks if you miss chances in a cup tie," said Ferguson, "and that was us today."
Quite so. Four minutes into the second half Sheringham, sent clear by Denis Irwin, beat Hislop with a narrow-angle shot only to see Hannu Tihinen, West Ham's borrowed Finn, clear off the line. Five minutes later Hislop blocked a shot from Andy Cole and Sheringham wafted the rebound over the bar.
With Joe Cole now beginning to run the game and Di Canio resuming a closer acquaintanceship with Kanoute, the thought that West Ham might win became more than a faint suspicion. Not that it occurred to Barthez, who had had so little to do that when at last he was asked to prevent a goal he more or less did nothing.
The Frenchman had started the match in typically skittish mood, racing out of goal to back-heel the ball to Jaap Stam despite Kanoute's lurking presence. But when Kanoute's pass caught the defence square, leaving Di Canio clear and onside, Barthez simply stood still with a hand in the air as if he expected a late flag.
"Perhaps he thought Paolo was going to pick the ball up," quipped Redknapp, remembering the Italian's sporting refusal to score a winner at Goodison Park with the Everton goalkeeper lying injured. No chance. Di Canio scored with sweet simplicity, 9,000 West Ham fans roared. It was Manchester United's first defeat in the FA Cup since they lost at Barnsley in a fifth-round replay in 1998.
Manchester United: Barthez, Irwin (Solskjaer 78), Silvestre, Stam, Gary Neville, Beckham, Giggs, Keane, Butt (Yorke 79), Sheringham, Cole. Subs Not Used: Van Der Gouw, Phil Neville, Chadwick. Booked: Beckham.
West Ham: Hislop, Tihinen, Stuart Pearce, Dailly, Schemmel, Winterburn, Lampard, Cole (Ian Pearce 90), Carrick, Kanoute, Di Canio (Soma 89). Subs Not Used: Forrest, Potts, Moncur. Goals: Di Canio 76.
Referee: P Durkin (Dorset).
