Soccer/Manchester Utd 1 Leicester 0: Alex Ferguson has urged his Manchester United players to "bounce rather than stagger" towards the English FA Cup final, but they failed to rally to his call last night, displaying a distinct economy of invention in overcoming Leicester City.
Nevertheless, Gary Neville's first Premiership goal in more than three years ensured they remain on course to achieve their manager's secondary ambition of pipping Chelsea to second place in the league. United now stand just three points behind Claudio Ranieri's side with a game in hand.
There was certainly no economy of effort on Leicester's part, but their failure to undo a weakened United line-up suggests the prognosis is bleak for Micky Adams' team, apparently bound for the First Division.
Adams admits that without Muzzy Izzet in midfield his side are "ordinary", and Izzet invariably was heavily involved in Leicester's better passing moves as they startled Old Trafford by enjoying the better of the first half.
Equally important, Izzet and Billy McKinlay made life unexpectedly tough for Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, ruthlessly closing them down at every opportunity.
With Steffen Freund and Jordan Stewart performing a similar smothering of Christiano Ronaldo and David Bellion on the flanks, Leicester enjoyed a high percentage of possession as a consequence.
Yet despite Marcus Bent's encouraging turn of pace and Paul Dickov's nuisance value, the creation of chances, or even half-chances, proved more problematic.
Accordingly, perhaps ominously, two of the best first-half openings came from United breaks. They fell to Louis Saha, who blasted one shot wildly over and then ran out of steam after acclerating through the massed ranks of blue shirts.
Leicester, though, might have gone ahead in the first few minutes when Roy Carroll, vying with Tim Howard for the goalkeeper's job in next month's FA Cup final against Millwall, inexplicably sliced an intended clearance straight to Izzet.
Handily positioned, some 12 yards out, Izzet's customary poise deserted him as he miscued his shot. Adams' admiration for his much-coveted captain may be boundless but he must have wished that opportunity had fallen to Dickov.
Instead, by the time they conjured another realistic scoring chance the interval was beckoning, and although Izzet curled an inviting free-kick in Bent's direction the striker directed his header wide.
If that left Bent frustrated, Forlan's petulant push on Matt Heath, Dabizas' co-central defensive barrier, spoke volumes, not to mention prompting season-ticket holders to cross their fingers that yesterday's apparently fanciful speculation linking Ruud van Nistelroy - missing again last night with a knee injury - with a transfer to Barcelona really was groundless.
The second period saw Bent pulling out wide to the right and putting pressure on John O'Shea whenever possible.
Indeed, attacking United from the wings seemed Leicester's main method of attack, the only problem being that their crosses tended to be poor.
Ferguson must have been more concerned about the lack of crosses from Bellion and Ronaldo. Granted Ronldo has a few tricks at least, but it was all too easy to see why no one at Sunderland can quite belief their luck in receiving £3 million in exchange for Bellion.
When Ronaldo did finally muster a proper centre it was threatening. Meeting a long pass from Gary Neville, he whipped the ball in from the left, leaving the on-rushing Neville to finish things off by sweeping in a right-foot shot.
It was the right-back's first Premiership goal since January 2001 and his first in all competitions for 13 months.
Almost immediately Ferguson withdrew Forlan, sending on Darren Fletcher into central midfield and relocating Scholes to an attacking role.
Unimpressed, a taut-faced Forlan stomped straight down the tunnel. But this rejig nearly paid an instant dividend, Walker being forced to react smartly to repel Scholes' rising shot.
"That was an important win for us, because we need to get as close as we can to Arsenal to get that second place," said Neville.
"We don't want to be in a position where we have to qualify for the Champions League. We also want to get as close as we can to Arsenal - we don't want them to win by too many points," he added.
MANCHESTER UNITED: Carroll, Gary Neville, Brown, Silvestre, O'Shea, Ronaldo, Butt, Scholes, Bellion (Djemba-Djemba 83), Forlan (Fletcher 57), Saha. Subs Not Used: Howard, Solskjaer, Giggs. Goals: Gary Neville 56.
LEICESTER CITY: Walker, Thatcher, Dabizas, Heath, Scimeca, McKinlay, Izzet, Freund (Gillespie 66), Stewart (Scowcroft 66), Bent, Dickov (Guppy 77). Subs Not Used: Nalis, Canero. Booked: Scimeca, Dabizas, Thatcher.
Referee: M Halsey (Lancashire).
