Manchester United - 1 Manchester City - 1:English FA Premiership: Not for the first time this season Alex Ferguson walked away from a Manchester derby with the empurpled anger of a drunk who has missed the last bus home. As if watching his players hoist a white flag at Maine Road last November was not galling enough, he will assess the damage from another morale-sapping afternoon and wish he could shut himself away in a darkened room.
For that, Manchester City will be indebted to a player who, 15 years ago, was summoned to Ferguson's office and informed he was deemed too maladroit for a career at Old Trafford. Ferguson may have been right about Shaun Goater, then 17, but the one-time Manchester United apprentice has never been shorn of self-belief and, with three goals against his former employers in two games this season, he may have played a decisive role in the destiny of this year's honours.
The header with which he turned the 128th meeting of Mancunian minds upside-down came four minutes from the end of what, at one juncture, had looked like just another routine United victory. Nobody could dispute that Goater has an impeccable sense of timing, but it was particularly evident here considering he had replaced Robbie Fowler only nine seconds earlier, thus scoring the quickest goal by a substitute since the Premiership's formation, a record previously set at 15 seconds by Jamie Cureton for Norwich against Chelsea in 1995.
The City manager Kevin Keegan mused: "Ali (Benarbia) said we hadn't given him long enough - and on the evidence of that he was probably right."
Ferguson complained vehemently, and with some justice, that Mikael Silvestre should not have been penalised for handball for the free-kick that precipitated Goater's twisting header. He was also entitled to grizzle about the moment, barely a minute after Ruud van Nistelrooy had put the hosts in front, when David Sommeil clipped David Beckham's right ankle inside the penalty area only to be spared by the referee Alan Wiley.
"These are decisive moments," said Ferguson. "First and foremost, it was not a handball. Secondly, I've seen the David Beckham incident and it was a clear-cut penalty. That would have changed the game."
These were valid points. Yet, by the same thinking, City could actually feel aggrieved not to have left Old Trafford cherishing their first league double over United since the 1969-70 season. In the third and final minute of stoppage-time Goater turned the ball beyond Roy Carroll again. This time, though, Nicolas Anelka was penalised for allowing an awkwardly bouncing ball to flick off his right glove, however unintentional it was, after Marc-Vivien Foe's cross had deflected off Silvestre's instep and spun on to the crossbar.
Anelka did not complain vociferously but that did not dilute the feeling that, just then, United's luck was in.
Perhaps Ferguson's ire would have been better directed towards Wes Brown and Rio Ferdinand for their culpability in losing Goater once Benarbia, another substitute blessed with a fine first touch of the ball, had squared the free-kick for Shaun Wright-Phillips to flick a cross into the congested penalty area.
Equally, Ferguson can hardly have been pleased by the proliferation of missed chances once Van Nistelrooy had turned in the low, teasing cross from Ryan Giggs that invited his 27th goal of the season. Van Nistelrooy was as much to blame as anyone, most notably when he was sent clear by Beckham's raking 56th-minute pass only to dwell far too long on the shot, allowing Sylvain Distin to rescue City with an excellent saving tackle.
These were times, with Roy Keane at his marauding best and Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes providing width and penetration, when United threatened to take City's respectability as well as their scalp. "We had so many chances that it's a game we should have won," said Ferguson. "When you spurn that many opportunities it can cost you."
There were certainly signs of Keegan's players being encouraged by the profligacy of their opponents, even if there was a conspicuous lack of momentum about their forward thrusts and few indications of a blossoming relationship between Fowler and Anelka.
Keegan also had to contend with Peter Schmeichel dropping out 20 minutes before the kick-off, his calf injury denying him a return to the arena where he spent eight hegemonic years and thrusting Carlo Nash into an unexpected starting role.
Yet, once they shook their heads clear, there was an admirable quality about the manner in which City, and the ubiquitous Eyal Berkovic in particular, persevered at their task.
"We have to be delighted," said Keegan. "We've played Manchester United twice now and we're unbeaten. I don't know how many sides will be able to say that at the end of the season, but I would guess you could count them on one hand, or even two fingers."
Guardian Service
MANCHESTER UTD: Carroll, Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Silvestre, Beckham, Keane, Veron (Butt 77), Giggs (Solskjaer 88), Scholes, van Nistelrooy. Subs Not Used: Ricardo, Phil Neville, O'Shea. Booked: Gary Neville. Goals: van Nistelrooy 18.
MANCHESTER CITY: Nash, Sommeil, Howey, Distin, Jihai, Foe, Horlock (Wright-Phillips 66), Berkovic (Benarbia 85), Jensen, Anelka, Fowler (Goater 85). Subs Not Used: Stuhr-Ellegaard, Dunne. Booked: Foe. Goals: Goater 86. Attendance: 67,646.
Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).
