Minutes after Manchester United had completed the second leg of the treasured treble the Wembley ground staff rolled out a giant mat covering half the width of the pitch with the champions' name emblazoned on it.

It would provide an appropriate backdrop to the frivolity and back-slapping as they celebrated the goals by Teddy Sheringham and Paul Scholes which enabled them to complete the FA cup and Premiership double for the third time in six years.

Even as Alex Ferguson hugged his players and Roy Keane, on one sound leg, hopped along in valiant pursuit, one wondered if the match organisers had taken along a similar one to salute Newcastle United in the event of their lifting the trophy for the first time in 44 years. Or if they had, would it have been so readily available at the finish.

The truth was that Manchester United were always going to win this disjointed final. And if the quality of their performance was some way off their season's best, it still represented an improvement on their nervous, inept football on the run in to the championship.

That, in many respects, was predictable for in the evolution of the modern game the FA Cup has dropped in the order of priorities. Once a prize which drove players to the limits of endurance, Wembley was now a mere stop over on the road from Premiership success at Old Trafford to the ultimate fulfilment of European conquest in Barcelona on Wednesday.

The conundrum of FA Cup finals is that the occasion, fine-tuned over the years, invariably dwarfs the game itself. Measured against some of those of modern times, this was a reasonably entertaining game with a good quota of goal-mouth incident.

The tramlines of championship football and the fixation to eschew risk at all costs were now frequently crossed with the referee, Peter Jones of Loughborough, catching the relaxed mood to overlook tackles which in the cut and thrust of the Premiership would almost certainly have invited sanctions.

Yet, the end product was inevitably the same, with Manchester United, high on the prospect of history, much too good for a team which betrayed all the signs of one which has struggled to establish its identity in another troubled season at St James' Park.

There are those who argue that the influx of foreign players has done little to enrich the English game and Newcastle, who have invested as heavily as any club in importations, make the point well. Players with big reputations abroad have singularly failed to make the transition to the frenzy of the Premiership and now, as Ruud Gullit surveys the turmoil in front of him, he knows yet again that money doesn't always buy success.

He will, one suspects, have been particularly disappointed in the contributions of his central defenders, Laurent Charvet and Niko Dabizas, whose alignment was baffling to the point where crisis loomed almost every time the winners routed their line of attack through the middle.

Dietmar Hamman and Nolberto Solano, one from Germany and the other a Peruvian, were so misplaced in midfield that each in turn was substituted. And with Alan Shearer, a mere shell of the player who once threatened the most carefully organised defences, Newcastle now looked even farther from the promised land than when losing to Arsenal in last season's final.

In the end it was left to Gary Speed and, to a lesser extent, Rob Lee to bring an element of authenticity to the team and reveal glimpses of the steel which in other times gave teams from Tyneside a fearsome reputation.

It was Speed's meaty tackle, right on the border line, which effectively ended Keane's participation in the game after just three minutes. And approaching halftime he launched himself into another big tackle which might well have left David Beckham in the same boat.

If Gullit interpreted the departure of Keane as an encouraging augury, he was mistaken. Resisting the temptation to introduce Jesper Blomqvist, Ferguson moved Beckham to central midfield, shunted Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to his right and crucially, brought in Sheringham to join Andy Cole at the front of the team.

Sheringham has suffered more than most in the surfeit of options available to the Manchester United manager. Now he seized his chance in a manner which may well give Ferguson problems in his choice of strikers for the meeting with Bayern Munich.

Within 90 seconds of his arrival he had given them the lead. In moments which would characterise their performance for the rest of the afternoon Charvet and Dabizas lost the striker as he raced on to Scholes' return pass and the shot, from close in, beat Shay Givens's replacement, Steve Harper, comfortably.

In all Sheringham might well have had three goals, only fractionally missing the header from Gary Neville's cross in the first instance and later chipping on to the top of the crossbar with Harper again stranded. On this display his claims for a place in the starting line in Barcelona are substantial.

Scholes, in his last appearance of the season, was another who revelled in Newcastle's shortcomings. Taking over the lead role in central midfield in Keane's absence, he discharged his responsibilities so successfully that the Irishman's absence was scarcely noticed.

Fittingly, it was Scholes who delivered the second decisive blow in the 52nd minute after Duncan Ferguson's arrival as a half-time replacement for Hamman had given hope of a recovery for Newcastle,

Solskjaer, winning the tackle with Speed, set up the chance initially and with the Newcastle central defenders again nodding, Sheringham had time and space to tee up the ball for the firmly struck shot from outside the penalty area by the redheaded midfielder.

With the trophy now firmly secured Ferguson brought in Jaap Stam for the final 14 minutes in what was effectively a fitness test for the European final. In the event the Dutchman came through it untroubled, beating Shearer comprehensively in a couple of meaty aerial duels.

Newcastle's moments of affluence, by contrast, were few. True, Temuri Ketsbaia was denied by David May's goal-line intervention and Silvio Maric was only fractionally off target after getting through in a one-on-one situation with Peter Schmeichel.

Either chance if taken could have set the scene for a big finish. Instead it deteriorated into a mere stroll for Manchester in the countdown to the last whistle. One suspects it will be a lot different in Barcelona on Wednesday evening.

Manchester United: Schmeichel: G Nevile, Jonsen, May, P Neville: Beckham, Keane (Sheringham,10), Scholes (Stam,76), Giggs: Cole (Yorke,60), Solskjaer. Subs not used: Van Der Gouw, Blomqvist.

Newcastle United: Harper: Griffin, Charvet, Dabizas, Domi: Lee, Hamman (Ferguson,45), Speed, Solano (Maric 67)): Shearer, Ketsbaia (Glass,78). Subs not used: Given, Barton.

Referee: P Jones.