It would be a pity if the pitch invasion by rejoicing Manchester United fans at the end of Wednesday's FA Cup semi-final replay at Villa Park was allowed to overshadow the goal that won it.

Ryan Giggs's dash and dribble through the Arsenal defence and the blur of a shot which beat David Seaman will surely be remembered longer than celebrations getting out of hand.

Since the match was played on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Cup semi-final which led to the Hillsborough tragedy, it was, perhaps, inevitable that anything untoward regarding the crowd's behaviour would be seized upon for critical comment. Certainly what happened at Villa Park was unpleasant and unnecessary, with minor injuries and a handful of arrests, but to link a security problem in 1999 with a safety disaster in 1989 was both wrong and insensitive.

Better by far to note the uncanny knack which football has of picking its moments to remind everybody of one of the game's basic appeals - the ability of an individual to outwit team patterns and turn a match in a few inspired seconds. And in Giggs's case the timing was everything.

Not only were memories of Hillsborough heavy in people's hearts, the failure of Rupert Murdoch's attempt to buy Manchester United had for several days filled the city and political columns with erudite analyses of the rights and wrongs of the trade and industry secretary's decision. United's falling share price appeared to be of more interest than the likelihood of Alex Ferguson's team achieving the Treble.

The immediate aftermath of Hillsborough was accompanied by feelings of emptiness that football seemed palpably ill-equipped to fill. For the bereaved this will always be the case but something positive was still needed to get the game back on its feet.

Four days later Milan met Real Madrid at the San Siro in the return leg of a European Cup semi-final, having drawn 1-1 at the Bernabeu. Shortly after the match had kicked off, as is the habit on the continent, the teams observed a minute's silence for the dead of Hillsborough while a large section of the Italian crowd sang You'll Never Walk Alone.

Then Milan proceeded to beat Real 5-0 with a display of attacking football which epitomised all that was good about the sport. And Ruud Gullit planned, made and scored a goal which was as near to perfection as any player is likely to get.

Watching Gullit and Milan that night restored faith in football's capacity to excite and enchant. It was much the same at Villa Park on Wednesday, albeit in slightly different circumstances. Giggs's winning goal, not to mention Peter Schmeichel's penalty save, retrieved the affairs of Manchester United from the MMC, the DTI, BSkyB and put them back on the sports pages.

But it took Giggs to remind everybody that even in an age when the game has never been so cash-conscious it can still produce moments which defy evaluation.

If he recovers from injury to produce an action replay against Juventus on Wednesday, when Manchester United take a 1-1 draw to Turin in the return leg of their Champions League semi-final, clearly the financial implications of reaching the final would be considerable. And if United want to make a serious impact on next season's expanded tournament they will need to spend more millions this summer strengthening Ferguson's squad.

After the victory over Arsenal, however, the talk concerned football, not finance. Comparisons were inevitable, with video libraries ransacked to find similar goals and the name of Best never far from people's minds.

When It comes to rating outstanding goals, context is as important as quality. Giggs's goal was memorable as much because of its timing as its taking. Other, even better goals have been forgotten either because they were not shown on television or the matches were relatively insignificant.

A personal favourite, for example, is one scored by Jimmy Greaves for Tottenham against Leicester City in a run-of-the-mill league game at White Hart Lane in the late Sixties. Having intercepted a throw-in from Willie Bell, Greaves took the ball through the Leicester defence in a huge arc, flicked it past Peter Shilton, and carried on running back to the centre circle while the crowd first roared then broke into thunderous applause.

As far as is known this goal was never captured on film or tape. Yet it remains as clear in the mind's eye as Giggs's goal on Wednesday night. Football should be like that, as much a game of memories as memorable games.