English FA Premiership/ Norwich City 2 Manchester Utd 0: Treating canaries as though they are barely out of the hatchery risks the discovery that even Tweety Pies have talons. Alternatively, never give a sucker an even break.
Either way Manchester United's attempt to beat Norwich City while keeping the best part of their powder dry for this weekend's FA Cup semi-final against Newcastle United rebounded embarrassingly for Alex Ferguson's team on Saturday.
So much so that doubts about them retaining the trophy are now running neck-and-neck with reservations concerning their ability to pip Arsenal for the second automatic Champions League place in the Premiership.
Perhaps Ferguson was entitled to believe that he could rest Roy Keane, keep Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench and still win at chilly Carrow Road. After all Norwich had lost five matches in succession, the last of them to an Arsenal side lacking Dennis Bergkamp, Sol Campbell and Patrick Vieira.
Crucially, however, Norwich had still been required to cope with Thierry Henry and had failed so abjectly that even a 4-1 defeat flattered them. Manchester United's bit players carried no such threat and, though Rooney certainly turned the game when Ferguson brought him on for the second half, it was hardly in the direction the United manager anticipated.
Well-taken goals by Dean Ashton and Leon McKenzie brought Norwich a win that has probably come too late to prompt an escape from relegation, but should keep Nigel Worthington and his players warm on bleak days back at Burnley and Millwall. "I think there was a real desire and passion there," said Worthington. "I keep saying we are still in the fight but outside this football club nobody believes me."
Saturday's victory showed that Norwich can still play fluent attacking football when the confidence and cohesion are there. If they win at Crystal Palace this weekend then the number of impartial believers in their survival may be able to form a quorum.
Against that the speed and finishing of Palace's Andy Johnson will surely pose a greater threat to Norwich than did United's lone strikers: first Louis Saha and then, after he limped off and until van Nistelrooy came on, Alan Smith.
Since the FA Cup again represents Ferguson's sole chance of winning something he was right to rest some of his better players, but surely not to the extent of denuding an attack that badly needed to get its act together after a guileless, goalless performance against Blackburn the previous weekend.
Without Keane, omitted in case he got a booking which would rule him out of the semi-finals, to goad them United spent 45 minutes passing the ball sweetly, but leaving the Premiership's most porous defence unruffled.
Until half-time Norwich, defending in depth, apparently did not have the legs to offer Ashton and McKenzie much support up front. The match looked as if it was going to be scoreless unless Manchester United roused themselves sufficiently to get a shot on goal.
Rooney's entrance enhanced such a prospect, but it was Norwich who found the target. Ten minutes into the second half the wayward wunderkind was booked for trying to knock the hell out of Thomas Helveg and from David Bentley's probing free-kick Ashton beat Tim Howard with a looping header.
With Rooney and Ronaldo, who had replaced Saha earlier, giving them width and van Nistelrooy restored to their attack one waited for Norwich to buckle, but it never happened. Rooney was unusually ineffective and Ronaldo spent much of his time in a sedentary position with hands outstretched, pleading for free-kicks like a man begging alms.
Howard Webb was having none of it and, when Youssef Safri was allowed to get away with shoving Rooney off the ball, a second goal for Norwich quickly followed six minutes past the hour. Darren Huckerby found Ashton in space and his square pass reached McKenzie, whose volley completed Norwich's first Premiership victory over Manchester United.
Not only did Ferguson duck the post-match press conference, as is his habit, but he also refused to speak to MUTV, which was akin to Joseph Stalin blanking Pravda.
Guardian Service
