Manchester Utd - 1 Fulham - 0: David Beckham will return to Old Trafford with Real Madrid one day and, if he expects a good reception, he will be sorely mistaken judging by the new song that was belted out by 15,000 fans in the Stretford End on Saturday. Penned in appreciation of Cristiano Ronaldo, it finishes with the line "he makes Beckham look . . ." To fill in the gap, think of a word that rhymes with the colour of Real Madrid's shirt.
Some might deem the anti-Beckham vibes as unwarranted given his achievements at the club and that, Paul Ince apart, Old Trafford usually prides itself on never turning against former players. Others might contest it is simply to honour Ronaldo, and no offence meant. Either way, it has been a long time since anyone questioned Ferguson's judgment in selling Beckham and replacing him with a pimply teenager whose famous surname only partially disguised the fact that no one had heard of him.
Ronaldo's contribution on Saturday not only incorporated the winning goal, when he cut inside from the left and struck a piercing shot from the edge of the penalty area, but enough moments of genuine menace for Alex Ferguson to make a point of absolving him from the allegations of carelessness he subsequently levelled at his other players.
"He was the star player, without any doubt," said Ferguson. "He gets a lot of abuse (from opponents) yet he was the one player who kept up his level for the whole game." Otherwise Ferguson was so irritated by his team's "farcical, laughable" failure to score more goals and their deficiencies in defence in the final exchanges, when Fulham concocted at least three presentable opportunities to equalise, he made the unusually frank claim that several players risked being dropped unless there was a drastic improvement before next month's FA Cup semi-final against Newcastle United.
Was this possibly a reference to Wayne Rooney? Having accepted his player-of-the-month award before kick-off, Rooney fell alarmingly below his usual standards of excellence and was a substitution waiting to happen. Or perhaps Ferguson was referring to Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has been so maladroit since returning from injury it is inexplicable that United have not played him in a reserve match to help him regain his sharpest form.
One certainty is that Ferguson was distinctly unimpressed with the occasionally lackadaisical defending that could have resulted in the Premiership's second-placed club falling even further behind Chelsea. Lee Clark struck a post and other chances came and went for Carlos Bocanegra, Andy Cole and the substitute Tomasz Radzinski.
Chris Coleman, Fulham's manager, might have benefited from introducing Radzinski earlier than the 89th minute. With stoppage time, Radzinski had only four minutes to make an impression but Coleman was unapologetic.
"You can't be gung-ho here; that's exactly what they want," he explained. "They want you to send bodies forward and take gambles. You have to be cautious or they will make you pay."
Another argument is United have grown accustomed to these methods of conservatism, as can be seen by their unbeaten Premiership record since the turn of the year.
In another season their form might have been impressive enough to return the league trophy to Old Trafford.
With eight games remaining they could still reach 90 points, equalling Arsenal's total last year and bettering that of United in six of Ferguson's eight championships.
