Schmeichel holds key to Keegan's revenge

Goalkeeper's experience backed by City manager as Dane faces former club in today's Manchester derby

"How did it go," the woman asked as her son and husband returned from Maine Road. "Five-one," said Darren Ferguson. "Smashing," said his mother. "No," came the reply. "Not to us, to them."

Alex Ferguson crept upstairs, put his head under a pillow, tried to sleep and block out all the raging emotions. Later, he would talk of "feeling like a criminal. You look at someone and feel you have betrayed that man."

It was 13 Novembers ago, it was Ferguson's first defeat in a Manchester derby and until now his last, although the result still rankles with the United manager. "I can still see it now," he recalled yesterday. "I still kick myself for picking the team I did. Steve Bruce was injured and someone on my staff said Mick Duxbury always does well against David White. I was going to play Mal Donaghy but I listened to that advice and White had a storming game."

Since then, Manchester City have won nothing, just a sense of injustice. Their manager, Kevin Keegan, employed the old cliché of the form book going out of the window in derbies, which, in Manchester, is precisely what has not happened during United's years of dominance.

By 1994-5 a 5-1 victory had turned into a 5-0 league thrashing and an FA Cup defeat via a penalty even Ferguson considered extremely soft. Two years later, City had victory snatched from them by Ryan Giggs.

They would wait five years for another crack, five years while United won the European Cup and four championships. Then, when the longed-for day did arrive, United won the match inside two minutes with a David Beckham free-kick. Ferguson, in South Africa for his the wedding of his son, Mark, did not even attend the match.

Perhaps even more anger hangs in the air in Manchester this morning. It will be the final derby at Maine Road, the first league meeting between Ferguson and Keegan since the Sunday in October 1996 when the latter's Newcastle routed Manchester United 5-0. It was Ferguson's worst defeat as a manager.

The shadow cast by Roy Keane's outrageous tackle on Alfie Haaland, neither of whom will play this afternoon, is also a long one and City's threat of legal action against United is still pending. On his last visit to Maine Road, Beckham, who will also be missing through suspension, was pelted with coins and Ferguson commented pointedly yesterday that he hoped the police and stewards would do their job.

Neither manager would discuss Keane's piece of crude thuggery in April 2001, the last occasion these sides met and for which the Manchester United captain has been punished twice, but Haaland, perhaps naïvely, hoped it could be put to one side.

"Everyone remembers that game for Roy Keane's challenge on me," he said. "Many people have forgotten that we played our hearts out to get a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. This is the first derby since then, which is probably why the build-up to this match is so hyped up even though neither Roy Keane nor myself will be playing. All I want to say is that this is a football match and not a war."

It might be argued that Manchester City's recent victories against Birmingham and West Bromwich, teams they have to beat to survive, are more important than events at Maine Road today, although Keegan, who dropped his playmaker Ali Benarbia and adopted far rougher tactics for those two matches, will not say it.

"The derby is bigger than that. I know what it means to the City fans; I go around the supporters' clubs. Make no mistake, we won't underestimate the importance of this game to our fans. We train half a mile from them, less as the crow flies, and it means a lot to players who were born in the area," Keegan said.

It is surprising to note that Manchester City will probably field no Mancunians this afternoon while United will possibly use four – Giggs, Paul Scholes and the Neville brothers. Had Nicky Butt been fit, it could have been five. The local contingent is one reason why United have had the edge in these fixtures. Ferguson commented that the foreign players could not be expected to know what this match represents. "It's an attitude. They won't be going through the same thinking processes as Giggs, the Nevilles or Scholes."

Peter Schmeichel's thinking processes would make interesting reading as he prepares to face the club where he became a goalkeeping icon. One journalist told Ferguson that the man considered to be his best-ever buy would receive a decent ovation from the 2,000 or so United fans who will cram into one corner of Maine Road for the final time. "Now there's a statement and a half," he laughed. "Would you like to put money on that?"

Schmeichel has been absent with a knee injury for several weeks but will replace Carlo Nash today. "Nash has done a great job for us," said Keegan, "but you understand why Peter will be playing."

It is six and a half years since Keegan gripped Sky Television's microphone to declare he had lost respect for Ferguson and would "love it, just love it" if Newcastle beat United to the championship. He was still terse when asked to comment on the godfather of British management but added. "I said when he announced he wasn't retiring that it would give another crack at him, in the nicest possible way. We are closer than some people imagine. We have a shared interest, although this year his horses have done better than mine."

Local Disputes Five Maine Road Derby Classics

1962-63: City 1 United 1

The ultimate drama. With both Manchester clubs needing something from the derby to stay up, City took the lead only to be thwarted by a late penalty won by Denis Law. United survived. City were relegated. Many in the blue half of Manchester will not forgive what they saw as a dive, although 11 years later Law's back-heel at Old Trafford paid United back by relegating them in turn.

1975-76: City 4 United 0

Remembered more for the challenge by Martin Buchan in which Colin Bell suffered the injury which was to wreck the career of one of City's greatest players. Nevertheless, City won this League Cup tie in style and went on to win the competition – their last domestic trophy, a fact which is still commemorated in a banner on Old Trafford's Stretford End.

1989-90: City 5 United 1

The match in which Alex Ferguson was placed perilously close to the edge. Yes, the Manchester United manager may now admit to selecting the wrong side but it is hard to imagine any combination which would have dampened down City's irresistible surge as they stormed to an astonishing victory. United fans still claim Mark Hughes scored the best goal of the game.

1990-91: City 3 United 3

Howard Kendall was well on the way to overseeing another United humiliation at Maine Road when the wheels came dramatically off. Leading 3-1 at half-time, Kendall subsituted his ageing but mightily-effective playmaker, Peter Reid. United took control of the midfield and fought back to square the match.

1993-94: City 2 United 3

Another City lead is allowed to slip away. Powerful attacking, channelled through Niall Quinn, saw them roar into a 2-0 advantage which was completely undone by a comeback orchestrated by Eric Cantona which culminated in a 3-2 victory for a United side on course for its first Double.