Manchester United's return to the FA Cup could so easily have seen them drop out of it again. For a time here yesterday the masters of the passing game were themselves given a lesson in the passing arts as Fulham made a distinguished though ultimately brief contribution to this season's competition.

Eighteen months after United's previous appearance in the Cup, when they won the trophy a 10th time, Alex Ferguson's side met a rather more demanding challenge than Newcastle United had offered them at Wembley in 1999.

In the end United were spared a replay by another of those cool finishes which are Teddy Sheringham's hallmark, but not before the Division One leaders had achieved a quality of performance which will surely be enhancing the Premiership next season.

A year ago United passed up the FA Cup in order to compete in the FIFA world club championship in Brazil, an exercise designed to strengthen England's bid to stage the 2006 World Cup. All of which seemed long gone yesterday as Ferguson's players found themselves chasing the shadows of not Necaxa or Vasco da Gama but a Fulham side whose football has been sweetly honed, first by Kevin Keegan and latterly by Jean Tigana.

When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer put Manchester United in front after just seven minutes the danger of an anticlimax was obvious. Fulham, like so many of United's Premiership opponents, appeared tentative to the point of diffidence. For a time they seemed anxious not to offend.

Yet once Fabrice Fernandes had brought the scores level with the most impertinent of free-kicks, all that changed. For the rest of the first half and the early part of the second United struggled to keep track of the bewildering pace, accuracy and imagination of Fulham's football.

Louis Saha, Tigana's £2.1 million sterling signing from Metz, was inspired, with Luis Boa Morte, the former Arsenal striker now on loan to Fulham from Southampton, not far behind him. Working in tandem these two, Frenchman and Portuguese, shrugged aside United's midfield and consistently threatened to turn their centre-backs inside out.

As Ferguson admitted: "That's the toughest time Gary Neville and Wes Brown have been given this season. Fulham's front two were fantastic for them and their team as a whole were never overawed.

"Once they scored I was glad to get to half-time and sort out one or two things. And while I didn't think we were under so much pressure in the second half there was a point near the end when I would have settled for a replay at Old Trafford."

Certainly this appeared the most likely outcome until Sheringham, newly recovered from a hamstring injury, came off the United bench to spare Ferguson that chore. And after performing so well earlier in the game, Fulham were understandably downcast at losing the tie in the 89th minute.

"Well though we played," said Lee Clark, "this was a reminder that if you make a slight mistake against opponents of this class you'll be punished for it. Teddy Sheringham had one shot and scored from it, that was the difference between the teams today."

Clark's point was well made. For all the menace achieved by Saha and Boa Morte, this was scarcely reflected in the number of saves Raimond van der Gouw, keeping goal for United in place of the flu-stricken Fabien Barthez, had to make.

Nevertheless, the fact that Fulham had gained a sufficiently strong grip of the tie by half-time to force Ferguson to reorganise his strategy said much for the level of performance achieved by Tigana's side. Even before Nicky Butt departed with a bruised hip, the industry of Clark and Sahnoun, frequently augmented by Saha or Boa Morte dropping deep, was threatening to overwhelm United in midfield.

In the second half, however, the switching of Phil Neville to midfield, with David Beckham and Ryan Giggs tucking in from the flanks, forced Fulham to operate in narrower corridors of space than they had enjoyed hitherto. Gradually United began to reassert their own passing game, and once an exhausted Boa Morte had been substituted Fulham looked increasingly less likely to pull off a famous victory.

A draw looked the fairest result. Solskjaer's goal, swiftly dispatched into the far corner of the net after Beckham had caught Clark in possession, was nicely balanced by Fernandes' cheekily chipped free-kick, which had been advanced 10 yards by Jeff Winter after he had cautioned Keane for delaying it.

The tie was approaching a weary, scrappy conclusion when Lee Chadwick, who had just come on for Beckham, worked the ball to Sheringham whose left foot did the rest.

"For me this was a real cup-tie day," said Ferguson. "Maybe we could have gone to Yeovil and had a similar game. This is the FA Cup."

Certainly he looked happy to be back and so, in the end, did his team.

Fulham: Taylor, Brevett, Symons, Melville, Finnan, Clark, Sahnoun, Goldbaek, Fernandes, Saha, Boa Morte (Stolcers 71). Subs Not Used: Hahnemann, Neilson, Trollope, Lewis. Booked: Boa Morte. Goals: Fernandes 24.

Man Utd: Van Der Gouw, Silvestre, Phil Neville, Gary Neville, Brown, Beckham (Chadwick 83), Butt (Wallwork 28), Keane, Giggs, Yorke (Sheringham 75), Solskjaer. Subs Not Used: Irwin, Rachubka. Booked: Brown, Keane, Phil Neville. Goals: Solskjaer 8, Sheringham 89.

Referee: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees).