SOCCER/Manchester United 0 Sunderland 0: A nerve-shredding night in the north-west of England ended with Sunderland relegated yet with Manchester United feeling the most obvious despair. A team who cannot find a way beyond Sunderland have no grounds to think of themselves as prospective champions, and Chelsea could conceivably settle the argument by Monday.

Jose Mourinho's team would go nine points clear with a victory at Bolton Wanderers today, and it is debatable whether Alex Ferguson will even tune in to see the result.

Ferguson will know that the game is up, that there are to be no more mind games and that he is looking at a third successive season without the league trophy. The manager spent the last few minutes on the side of the pitch, alone, as his team were undone, almost unimaginably, by the Premiership's basement club.

Ferguson had felt sufficiently emboldened beforehand to float the possibility of his team accumulating sufficient scores to wipe out Chelsea's advantage of eight in the goal-difference column. It was a statement of intent that was clearly designed to unnerve Mourinho's players, but it was also the sort of public declaration that Sunderland's caretaker manager, Kevin Ball, might have referred to when geeing up his players in the dressingroom.

Sunderland may have been left holding the Premiership's wooden spoon, but they made it pretty clear early on that they were not altogether willing to leave Old Trafford with their professional reputations on the floor. Theirs has been a thoroughly chastening season, but this was one night on which they seemed determined there would be no capitulation, no more embarrassment, no more jokes.

There were even "olés" from the away end as Ball's willing but limited team not only held their own throughout the opening 45 minutes but forced their opponents back into their half.

It was a strangely subdued opening from Ferguson's players and, by half-time, the Old Trafford crowd were becoming audibly nervous. Ferguson was looking conspicuously agitated, grinding his chewing-gum, muttering under his breath.

His players finished the first half in the ascendancy, but there was none of their customary attacking zest, none of those sweeping moves that had Paul Robinson of West Bromwich Albion describing them as football's equivalent of the Red Arrows, just hesitant crab-like incursions into their opponents' half.

A slightly disbelieving Old Trafford witnessed, among other unexpected moments, Grant Leadbitter slip a reverse nutmeg through John O'Shea's legs, Liam Lawrence steal in ahead of Patrice Evra for a clear sight of goal and Jon Stead not get a firm enough contact with the most inviting opportunity of the half.

As the players left the field at half-time, Wayne Rooney was complaining vociferously to the referee Rob Styles, a sure sign that things were not going United's way. Rooney's complaint concerned alleged time-wasting from the visiting goalkeeper, Kelvin Davis, although it is fair to assume Ferguson's grievances will have related to his players.

He will have been particularly pained by the lack of penetration against a side that has the most porous defence in the league.

United have touched some exhilarating heights since being 18 points behind Chelsea in early-March, but there was a note of desperation to their play as the game moved into the second half with little sign of them emphasising the gulf between the two clubs.

By the hour mark the tension from another club-record crowd of 72,519 seemed to be affecting the home players. They continued to find Sunderland's defence in resolute form, and when they did manage to slice them open they found Davis - much criticised by fans this term - in inspired form.

There was one last push, but it continued to be a laboured effort and Davis continued to defy the memory of Sunderland supporters turning against him earlier this season.

It is not often a team is relegated and looks more contented than their opponents, but at the final whistle it was Sunderland's followers who could be heard.

And a despondent Ferguson traipsed away, hardly believing his team could be so careless.

MANCHESTER UTD: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Evra (Silvestre 67), Ronaldo, O'Shea (Solskjaer 67), Giggs, Park, Rooney, van Nistelrooy. Subs not used: Howard, Heinze, Fortune.

SUNDERLAND: Davis, Hoyte, Danny Collins, Breen (Caldwell 63), McCartney, Lawrence, Leadbitter (Miller 74), Whitehead, Daryl Murphy, Stead (Le Tallec 80), Brown. Subs not used: Joe Murphy, Kyle. Booked: Brown.

Referee: R Styles (Hampshire).