No Goliath Slaying This Time

MAN UTD: Howard, Bardsley, Pique, Brown (Neville 62), Silvestre, Solskjaer, Fletcher (Giggs 62), O'Shea (Ferdinand 62), Richardson, Rossi, Saha.

Subs Not Used: Van der Sar, van Nistelrooy.

They arrived in their thousands to follow the minnows from Staffordshire and had a good night, I'm sure. But that's the end of it, and I bet Sir Alex can sleep at night now.

No fairytale and no giant slayed, just one record for the anoraks - the largest visiting support Old Trafford has ever seen.

An incredible 11,000 fans came north from Staffordshire and how can we forget the cries of 'Ole' as their leg-weary heroes played keep-ball near the end? Classic.

But let's give credit to a Manchester United side who had to do a job on them, and they did it well without adding humiliation.

Two first-half goals from Louis Saha and Giuseppe Rossi ensured United were never likely to suffer more abuse from the nation's tabloids, and Kieran Richardson and Ryan Giggs both found the net after the interval before Rossi's second wrapped up victory and a fourth round trip to Wolves.