CarlingNet - No 1 for Match Reports

Man United v Liverpool 12/10/96 11.15

Man United              (1) 1 Liverpool               (0) 0 FT
Beckham 23

David Beckham plunged the knife into Liverpool's championship pretensions as Manchester United's Premiership kings took a firmer hold of their crown.

Breakfast had barely been cleared away across the land when England's new wonderkid crashed home the 22nd-minute Old Trafford goal which shattered their greatest rivals' unbeaten start to the season.

For Alex Ferguson's injury-hit champions it was the perfect start to a gigantic week which will take them this into the Champions' League cauldron of Istanbul and on into the den of their other great challengers, Newcastle.

Defeat in any one of these games will be intensely damaging, but in stretching their two-year Premiership home invincibility to a 35th game, they did themselves a power of good, narrowing the Merseyside advantage to a single point.

Liverpool, who rarely prosper here just one win in 13 years went back down the East Lancs Road knowing they have only themselves to blame.

Victory could not have been by a narrower thread, hanging by the bootlaces of Peter Schmeichel's 86th minute save from the brilliant Czech Patrik Berger and the profligacy of Steve McManaman.

Sky's determination to screen live the most compelling fixture of the season resulted in a compromise that saw most of these players kicking off earlier than any have probably done since their schooldays.

As Alex Ferguson bitingly observed a sunny October morning is a bizarre time to turn in a championship-winning performance.

But while his team were yet again bafflingly inconsistent, their ability to stay high in domestic contention while they concentrate on the biggest prize will cushion them next spring.

They were boosted by the news that Ryan Giggs today became the seventh player within weeks to commit himself to Old Trafford beyond the millennium with a new five-year contract.

But that was overshadowed by his absence, along with Gary Pallister, from Ferguson's starting line-up. Fortunately Norwegian defender Ronny Johnsen was fit to return alongside David May while Jordi Cruyff filled in for Giggs.

As the game unfolded the more damaging absentee was Robbie Fowler, who scored both goals in last season's 2-2 draw and who gives Liverpool such a cutting edge.

Hoddle and John Gorman were among the 55,128 crowd to check on his partner Stan Collymore, and other fringe contenders like Dominic Matteo, unfit for England in midweek, David James and Nicky Butt.

But far more valuable perhaps were the tactical lessons, Liverpool employing a back three with far more panache and understanding than we saw at Wembley on Wednesday, while Beckham showed how effective he is in a more central role than as a wing-back.

His quick wits and Butt's willing courage held the tide as Liverpool, a rejuvenated John Barnes pulling the strings, had the possession but not the penetration.

James was far busier, diving at the feet of the baby-faced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as he sought to add to his four goals in four games, and then racing out of his area to block him off after a suicidal back pass by Matteo in the 11th minute.

The presence of so many foreigners had certainly reduced the usually frantic element of these games but not its quality.

And the tensions soon boiled, referee David Elleray excellent in keeping the lid on, booking May, McAteer, Babb and Thomas but contenting himself with lecturing other offenders.

High noon was still a few minutes off when Beckham broke the deadlock with a goal out of the beautiful blue morning sky.

Gary Neville hoisted the ball forward from halfway and Solskjaer's superb first touch, hooking the ball on the turn, wrong-footed the Liverpool defence.

Matteo managed to get a foot on his shot but the ball broke for England's 21-year-old to rasp a wicked right-foot 20 yard shot past the helpless James and in off the base of his right-hand post.

It was Liverpool's misfortune that their best chances fell to McManaman's right foot, the free spirit so good at getting into good positions but so poor at finishing them off.

In the 28th minute Barnes put him free on the right but his shot flew across goal and out for a throw-in on the far side to his intense embarrassment. It did not get much better.

He had another chance from Berger's cross from the left but the ball arrived beyond the back stick at an awkward height and again he hooked it across goal.

In the 62nd minute, the busy Berger hustled a subdued Eric Cantona celebrating the game which marked his return from suspension a year ago and Barnes put McManaman clear again on the right. Guess what? Yes, a shot flashing towards the corner flag instead of the corner of the goal.

The tide turned more heavily against United in the second half when Liverpool had so much of the ball but could not break down Schmeichel's rearguard.

Thomas sneaked in ahead of Butt to head over Bjornebye's cross in the 64th minute.

Then McManaman brought the ball out from a United corner and sparked a devastating 66th minute breakaway, McAteer setting up Collymore for a deep cross that Berger looped against the outside of the back post.

From the half-cleared corner Schmeichel acrobatically touched over Scales' zipping header.

But the best chance arrived with just four minutes to go, when Berger was clipped through brilliantly by McManaman and had an over-exposed Schmeichel seemingly at his mercy. But somehow the Dane stuck out his left leg and deflected the shot away.