ENGLISH FA CUP Manchester Utd 1 Crawley Town 0:CREDIT WHERE credit is due but rarely given. Manchester United played perfect hosts on Saturday, enhancing Crawley Town's FA Cup moment with a stadium tour, a police escort to Old Trafford, a post-match reception with Alex Ferguson and a collection of kit signed by the first-team squad.

But, as Wayne Rooney showed by offering his shirt by means of an apology, even the most accommodating hosts wish to see the back of troublesome guests eventually.

“I’d got a whack in the face off him so I think the shirt was an apology,” said David Hunt, the Crawley right-back who left the pitch, 15 minutes after the final whistle, wearing Rooney’s number 10. “He didn’t mean to do it and it’s a man’s game but the shirt more than makes up for it.”

It would be too simplistic to blame United’s woeful second-half performance and fortunate progress into the quarter-finals on Gabriel Obertan and Bebe, €11.8 million worth of deeply hidden talent, when so many lacked an intelligent response to Crawley’s increasing belief and commitment.

United finished grateful that Richard Brodie’s stoppage-time header struck the bar and deprived Steve Evans’s men of a merited draw, and with eight internationals on the pitch. Only two, Wes Brown and John O’Shea, distinguished themselves above opponents 93 league places beneath them and, most disconcertingly for Ferguson, the problem was not complacency but a lack of energy, pace and accuracy once the non-league side roused themselves.

The day was guaranteed to belong to Crawley and their 9,000 impassioned supporters regardless of the result but this was borderline embarrassing for the Premier League leaders. “We can’t be proud of anything we did out there,” admitted the goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard.

Rooney, a second-half substitute, was not the worst culprit but was reduced to taking his street striker reputation too literally when seeking retribution on Crawley’s Kyle McFadzean with a dreadful late challenge. “Rooney was shouting at his own players towards the end,” revealed Sergio Torres, the Argentinian midfielder whose father travelled over for the game. “He was saying, ‘Come on, come on.’ I lent into him during the second half and put him on the floor, so I was quite happy with that.” Not that Crawley bridged the gulf by virtue of an agricultural approach. Heart and work-rate were to be expected on their biggest day but Evans’s side showed more adventure at Old Trafford than many teams in the top half of the Premier League.

Behind to Brown’s glancing header following a corner that should not have been given, as Rafael had fouled Matt Tubbs in the build-up, the visitors shook off the star-dust towards the end of the first half. Their performance continued to rise thereafter, with Tubbs denied a repeat of Rooney’s overhead kick against Manchester City by Brown’s interception, Hunt volleying wide with his wrong foot and finally Brodie sending a looping header over Lindegaard but against the crossbar.

“When I was coming off I thought, ‘I need to have a memory of this day’, so I put a bit of grass in my socks. I’ve put it inside my boots and now I’m going to frame my boots with the grass because I’m not going to wear them again. It’s something to have for the rest of my life. It has been the best day of my life,” added Torres.

Evans’s approach and attitude to facing United at Old Trafford, however, could not be faulted. “United have treated us in the most exemplary fashion,” said Crawley’s manager.

“They offered us the stadium tour and all the other bits but we didn’t want the glitz. We wanted what we were going to get today – the dressingrooms, the pitch and the technical area.

“We weren’t sure where the hotel was or where we were going to stay afterwards, so they got one of the staff to guide us to the hotel and they got us a police escort from the hotel to Old Trafford. After the game a member of staff has come into our dressingroom and given us a load of shirts signed by all the big players – the Rios and Giggs. It has been a wonderfully humbling experience and I am proud to be from the same city as Sir Alex.”

Prouder still, perhaps, that his players belonged on the same pitch as Manchester United.

Guardian Service