Burnley - 0 Manchester United - 2:ENGLISH LEAGUE CUP: Victorious amid the vitriol, Alex Ferguson and Manchester United's lingering interest in this competition was extended in a snarling pocket of Lancashire last night.
Only for Blackburn do the locals reserve more bile than United.
True to recent form, a local derby brimming with spite merely brought the best out of the visitors and their once maligned, now hero-worshipped Uruguayan Diego Forlan.
The 23-year-old may have suffered eight months and 26 games without a goal following his £7.5 million move from Independiente but, as those frustrated Burnley fans trudging home early could testify, he has come of age in some style.
Yet by the break, albeit after an early storm whipped up as much by Glen Little's waspish right foot as the home partisans, any exorcism already looked as if it would have to wait.
Only during a predictably frenetic opening did Burnley threaten to disrupt either the visitors' poise or Ferguson's rather uninterested contemplation on the bench.
Robbie Blake, providing subtle invention to complement Little's menace, had turned Phil Neville within a minute only for Gareth Taylor to prod his shot wide of the near post.
The Welsh striker repeated the dose moments later as Blake skimmed another centre invitingly into the six-yard box.
When Taylor did find his range, from Lee Briscoe's corner five minutes from the break, Roy Carroll tipped his powerful header over the bar.
By then, United had eked out an advantage. Even with Arsenal looming large at the weekend, Ferguson felt compelled by neighbourly rivalry to field a quintet of his victorious starters from Anfield on Sunday.
Most surprisingly, those included Ruud van Nistelrooy whose point-blank shot after Forlan had crossed and Luke Chadwick re-centred from the right was smothered by Marlon Beresford.
A Forlan spin and swipe wide and a Michael Stewart shot saved aside, that was as good as United mustered until Dean West self-destructed.
With the full-back day-dreaming and playing Forlan onside, the Uruguayan gathered John O'Shea's astute pass to race clear.
Van Nistelrooy may have been pleading in support, but Forlan is unrecognisable from the sheepish shambles of a month ago. His brace on Merseyside pepping up confidence, he simply slid home his sixth United goal beyond the exposed goalkeeper.
Burnley had recovered from a similarly slim deficit in the previous round against Tottenham Hotspur and, with home fire and brimstone swiftly renewed, United could have done with a prompt second.
But the unmarked O'Shea, otherwise efficient in an unaccustomed midfield role, nodded Stewart's free-kick inexplicably wide, while the Scot saw his own shot saved by Beresford from Chadwick's pull-back and Forlan's lay-off.
The urgency may have been all Lancastrian, West seeing his close-range shot choked by the outstanding Wes Brown, but amid the huff and puff the Mancunians' breaks threatened greater reward.
Twice Daniel Pugh, on his first senior start, gathered the substitute Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's fizzed crosses only to pass up on the finish, his first shot parried by Beresford, his second steered wide.
As it was, the youngster was spared too many blushes. Chadwick, twisting and turning away from two red-faced defenders and leaving Graham Branch crestfallen in his slipstream, pulled his cross to the unmarked Solskjaer. The Norwegian, with minimum fuss, instinctively lashed his shot into the roof of the net.
"I thought we showed a lot of resolution and fight against a team that gives everything," said Ferguson.
"We had to work hard, they were a bit unlucky and made it a real cup tie. I sensed in the second half we were getting more penetration and creating chances and it kept them stretched a bit, and doing that I didn't worry as much as the first half.
"It was a good competent performance, we had to battle but we did that well tonight."
Centre-half Wes Brown added: "We knew it was going to be tough and we would have to grind it out and get the win.
"They are playing at home, it was always going to be difficult. We had a lot of young players but we got together and played how we know we can do and got the win."
Guardian Service
BURNLEY: Beresford; West, Davis, Gnohere (Alan Moore 72), Branch, Weller, Cook (Grant 57), Briscoe (Papadopoulos 66), Little, Blake, Taylor. Subs not used: Ian Moore, McGregor.
MANCHESTER UTD: Carroll; Phil Neville, May, Brown, Silvestre, Chadwick, Stewart (Scholes 58), O'Shea, Pugh, Forlan (Giggs 76), van Nistelrooy (Solskjaer 45). Subs not used: Ricardo, Roche. Booked: Brown. Goals: Forlan 35, Solskjaer 65.
Referee: N Barry (N Lincolnshire).
