Ipswich 0 Manchester Utd 1The sun was setting and the sullen air hinted at rain as the black Mercedes people carrier with tinted windows reversed to the iron railings in front of Ipswich's main stand.
For a moment nothing happened, then an angry chant of "cheat, cheat, cheat" went up, the back door was flung open and a large kitbag was thrown in, followed by the referee Rob Styles. The door slammed shut, a phalanx of stewards surrounded the vehicle and it slowly pushed its way through the knot of blue-shirted supporters and vanished into the gathering gloom.
It takes a lot to rile the Ipswich fans but when relegation is beckoning and your side have fought against the reigning champions with everything they have, only to be denied by a dubious penalty, then feelings tend to run high. "You feel hard done by when you lose to a goal like that," said captain Matt Holland.
The penalty, the only notable incident in a scrappy match, came in the second minute of time added on in the first half. Roy Keane swung the ball in from the right, Titus Bramble and John McGreal moved to cut off Ruud van Nistelrooy's run and the United striker, arms flailing, went down inside the area. The home side protested bitterly but the referee was insistent he had seen a foul. Unmoved, van Nistelrooy put away his sixth penalty of the season.
No one was more frustrated than Bramble, who was nonplussed to be told by Sky that he was the man penalised, supposedly for a push on van Nistelrooy. "When I watch the match again on television, I'll just be thinking that could have got us relegated," he said. "It has killed us really. The referee was 25 yards away, looking through a crowd of bodies and couldn't really see.
"He said I pushed him but I just stood my ground. I just turned my body to watch the ball go out of play and van Nistelrooy fell over. I don't think he dived, his legs just got tangled up and the referee has given a penalty for that. I tried to ask him why and he just booked me, which was silly."
His manager George Burley was less circumspect. "Van Nistelrooy has gone down looking for it - no doubt about that - and the referee has been sucked in."
The United players emerged from the dressing room refusing to speak, van Nistelrooy pushing through a throng of hostile fans with only a fixed grin for protection, but he cropped up on The Premiership with an explanation of sorts. "I wanted to head the ball and was not able to because of the defender. The ref was four metres behind me and he saw it was a clear penalty." TV replays suggested he had tripped over his own feet. On such moments matters of survival hinge.
Neither side had deserved to win in a poor advertisement for satellite television. Despite knowing Liverpool's loss earlier in the day had left United as Arsenal's only real title challengers, Alex Ferguson still picked six reserves and it was hardly surprising the visitors' play was incoherent.
He will, though, at least have some fresh legs to stick in for the trip to Bayer Leverkusen for the second leg of the Champions League semi-final tomorrow, although whether they will include the underachieving Juan Sebastian Veron now that Keane is fit remains to be seen. The German side offered some encouragement by losing away to Nuremberg, Borussia Dortmund taking over at the top of the Bundesliga, and there was another fillip when David Beckham's father, Ted, said he hoped his son would be fit for the European Cup final, which takes place on May 15th.
Before then United take on Arsenal at home on May 8th - which will be given added spice should the Gunners lose tonight - and then there is a home match against Charlton. "We're still alive," grinned Bobby Charlton. "It's a strange game."
For Ipswich there is just one game left, a visit to Liverpool where they must win to have a chance of staying up ahead of Sunderland, who have an inferior goal difference, but are three points ahead. "We've won there the last two times we've been there, so you never know," said Holland.
And to think yesterday was the 40th anniversary of their title win under Alf Ramsey.
IPSWICH: Marshall, Bramble, McGreal, Hreidarsson, Clapham, George (Wilnis 52), Tommy Miller, Holland, Peralta, Reuser (Darren Bent 70), Marcus Bent (Armstrong 84). Subs Not Used: Salmon, Stewart. Booked: Bramble, Hreidarsson, McGreal.
MANCHESTER UTD: Carroll, Phil Neville, Brown, O'Shea, Irwin, Forlan, Butt, Keane, Chadwick (Silvestre 78), Stewart (Scholes 45), van Nistelrooy (Solskjaer 60). Subs Not Used: Van Der Gouw, Djordjic. Goal: van Nistelrooy 45 pen.
Referee: R Styles (Waterlooville).
