Manchester United 1 Aston Villa 0:Every so often even the most hardened football manager can let slip the fact that he is a football fan as well. Graham Taylor's eyes lit up when Denis Law sauntered past on Saturday evening. "Wow," he gasped. "Why couldn't you have been out there for us today?" Law smiled, then disappeared. Taylor's cheeks were flushed. "Sorry about that," he said. "It was just the kid in me coming out."
ManchesterTwenty-eight years since Law's final act as a Manchester United player, the fisherman's son from Aberdeen was guest of honour to unveil a statue of himself at the Stretford End, beneath which he scored the majority of his 236 goals for the club. The Theatre of Dreams paid homage to the King, then turned its attentions to the heir to his title.
Footballers are never awarded legendary status until they have stopped playing, so Ruud van Nistelrooy may have to wait a while before he can be bracketed with Law. United fans of a certain age may even contend that the 1964 European Footballer of the Year, 62 yesterday, should be beyond comparison ad infinitum.
Yet Van Nistelrooy's maiden season in English football has revealed a player capable of making the leap from excellence to greatness. It is his name now that is sung with most gusto from the Stretford End. It is his addiction to scoring which, along with Roy Keane's continued good health, will be the key factor in whether United can win their fourth title in a row and beyond that, the European Cup.
His winner in the midst of Saturday's gales was his 19th goal in the Premiership and it cannot be long before he becomes only the third United player, behind Dwight Yorke and Brian McClair, to score 20 league goals in a season since George Best in 1967-68. With 14 games to go, not even Dennis Viollet's 42-year club record of 32 is totally safe.
It was an untidy goal in an untidy match. Peter Schmeichel's return to Old Trafford had been fairly uneventful until the point, after 50 minutes, when George Boateng tried to dribble through a clutch of players just outside his own penalty area. With one robust tackle Keane dispossessed him. The ball popped out to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and, as he shaped to shoot, Mark Delaney slid in to steal the ball from his toe. It was a well timed tackle but the ball ran kindly for Van Nistelrooy who, with a neat turn and shot, tucked away a soft goal. "Frustration is the polite word," said Taylor, although one suspects the impolite version was reserved for Boateng.
Taylor cannot have had a rant quite like this since Watford's last season in the Premiership - a period, he now says, when "losing 2-0 was a good result". He added: I've not come back to management for fun or to lose at Manchester United to a crap goal. We've scored 32 league goals this season and that's a depressing statistic." Even more so, considering that Van Nistelrooy's tally in all competitions for club and country is 33. As Alex Ferguson said: "We could be unveiling a statue for him one day."
Guardian Service
MANCHESTER UTD: Barthez, Silvestre, Gary Neville, Blanc, Irwin (Johnsen 86), Beckham, Keane, Butt, Veron, van Nistelrooy, Solskjaer.Subs not used: Carroll, Scholes, Forlan, O'Shea.Goal: van Nistelrooy 50.
ASTON VILLA: Schmeichel, Delaney, Mellberg, Staunton, Barry, Samuel (Dublin 79), Boateng, Hadji (Hitzlsperger 63), Stone, Angel, Vassell. Subs not used: Enckelman, Balaban, Kachloul.
Referee: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees)
