THEIR place in the European Cup quarter finals secure, Manchester United turned to domestic matters yesterday only to find West Ham United reluctant to he cast in the role of doormats.

A win for Alex Ferguson's team at Upton Park would have enabled them to rejoin the leading pack in the Premier League, but no sooner was victory within their grasp than it was whisked away by two late goals in as many minutes.

Anything less than a draw would have been scant reward for the imaginative attacking football West Ham produced throughout. But for the bulk of the match this was not reflected in their finishing, and when an inspired piece of football from Eric Cantona set up Ole Solskjaer for Manchester United's first goal, to be followed by a typically audacious second from David Beckham, it looked as if the game would be won more in the spirit of the wages snatch than the carefully planned bank raid.

This was West Ham's fourth draw in six league matches and they still have not won in the Premiership since beating Blackburn at the end of October.

Yesterday, however, the performance offered them more encouragement than the bare facts of the result, not least because Harry Redknapp's much criticised Romanian pair, Ille Dumitrescu and Florin Raducioiu, looked more like the players they had been in the 1994 World Cup.

Dumitrescu began the game, with his compatriot on the bench, but it was Harry Redknapp's decision to bring on Raducioiu, soon after West Ham had fallen behind, which eventually increased the pressure on Manchester United's defenders during the last quarter hour. West Ham will now expect the pair to imagine they are playing the champions every week.

Not that Manchester United looked much like champions yesterday. Injuries in Vienna four days earlier had deprived them of Gary Neville in defence and Roy Keane and Nicky Butt in central midfield. Hard though Brian McClair worked he is no Keane, whose pace and strength were badly missed as West Ham hustled, harried and pursued their opponents between the penalty areas.

"At half time I could see only one winner," Redknapp reflected later.

Certainly West Ham had made a good prima facie case for victory. Manchester United had been unable to keep proper track of Dumitrescu, whose cross was fumbled by Peter Schmeichel before the Dane redeemed himself with the save that denied Michael Hughes a goal from the rebound.

A few minutes later an attempted centre from Dumitrescu ricocheted off David May and on to McClair's trailing forearm. When a similar thing happened to Bowen the referee penalised the West Ham defender, but now he waved away their appeals for a penalty.

For all their possession and territorial advantages West Ham still needed luck at the right time if they were turn their first half superiority into goals. Their shooting remained distant and awry; their final passes lacked the crucial element of surprise; Ian Dowie toiled honestly but in vain.

Little was seen of Ryan Giggs or Cantona and even less of Karel Poborsky, who on being presented with the sight of Julian Dicks advancing on him with the ball appeared to decide that Christmas was a more enticing prospect at that point than a tackle.

Yet West Ham were warned in the 40th minute what the consequences of their failure to score might be. Cantona, headed Giggs's cross on to Solskjaer, who controlled the ball with a flick and a nudge before bringing Miklosko into urgent action for the first time, the West Ham goalkeeper turning the shot around a post.

The portent was not false. Eight minutes into the second half Cantona's superb through pass sent Solskjaer clear of a square defence to draw Miklosko before beating him with a low shot. As Dumitrescu swerved past two defenders before driving the ball a fraction wide of the far post West Ham looked far from done for, but in the 75th minute Beckham gathered a pass from Phil Neville, who had replaced Poborsky, in the penalty are and scored another memorable goal, chipping the ball' into the top left hand corner of the net.

With Bilic forced off by flu - not that this had spared the Croatian a first half caution for a crude foul on Beckham - West Ham appeared done for. They had scored only 13 league goals all season, now they were two down to the champions with time running out.

Then it all changed. In the 77th minute Raducioiu spun past Ronnie Johnsen on the left, and with Schmeichel anticipating a shot inside his near post drove the ball past the Manchester United goalkeeper into the far corner of the net.

In the 79th Dumitrescu's through pass found Hughes sprinting clear of the last defender. Schmeichel brought him down, Dicks put away the penalty as only Dicks can, and suddenly West Ham were blowing bubbles again, leaving Alex Ferguson and his team feeling a little flat.