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Your support makes all the difference.In a prime example of instant history, the shirt Wayne Rooney wore while scoring his hat-trick against Fenerbahce on Tuesday is now on display in the Manchester United club museum. The one he wore on his Premiership debut yesterday might just make a charity raffle in Cheshire.
Before kick-off, his manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, suggested that the hype surrounding England's wonder-child had to be dampened, although falling a further two points behind Arsenal was not quite what he had in mind. Rooney was not even the best 18-year-old on the pitch, an honour won by James Morrison, a member of Middlesbrough's FA Youth Cup-winning side, whose cross presented Stuart Downing with a goal that ought to have given them a fourth Premiership victory at Old Trafford.
That United salvaged a point at all was due to the most obvious victim of the Rooney transfer, another northern boy brought to Manchester. Alan Smith's majestic header nine minutes from time triggered a frantic and familiar scramble for victory that Middlesbrough had the organisational ability to hold off with as much comfort as could reasonably be expected.
Rooney's only contribution to the equaliser was that it was his shot which rebounded off Gareth Southgate and which Cristiano Ronaldo crossed over for Smith to direct home. Otherwise, there was only the scuffed shot into the East Stand that spawned the patently untrue chant from the Teesside contingent that: "You couldn't score in a brothel".
Without Mark Viduka and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Middlesbrough were forced to field three teenagers. And yet if you had to bet your mortgage on a side to go to Old Trafford and survive, it would be Boro, whose League record at Manchester United under both Bryan Robson and Steve McClaren is superior to Arsenal's under Arsène Wenger. "Nobody who saw our team-sheet before the game would have given us a chance," said McClaren.
"I think it's one of the most memorable performances I've seen since I've been in charge here. To think that we were playing in Europe on Thursday, had three 18-year-olds making their Premiership debuts and were playing a team like Manchester United, was remarkable.''
The key to playing United, he said, was "defending well, scoring first, not launching it up the pitch" and, he added, a considerable dollop of luck. Middlesbrough's fortune consisted of two opportunities falling to Gary Neville, who scores, on average, once every 56 games, and Ruud van Nistelrooy striking the bar.
While growing up in Bury, Southgate had supported the Manchester United of Dave Sexton and Ron Atkinson and had always regretted having played little of his football on the biggest stages. Yesterday, however, Southgate provided a model of defensive positioning against Rooney, supported by George Boateng, who stationed himself directly in front of the back four. "In the second half we got ourselves into marvellous positions but when the cross came over there was always one of their defenders to take it clear," Ferguson sighed afterwards.
In truth, United were suffocated and, without Paul Scholes, they lacked a cutting edge in central midfield, where Ferguson continues to prefer John O'Shea, a specialist defender, rather than Kleberson, a World Cup winner.
This may have worked against Tottenham and Liverpool, but Eric Djemba-Djemba, who had played in Tuesday's Rooney-fest, found himself discarded and in Gaizka Mendieta, McClaren possessed someone capable of exploiting any midfield uncertainty.
And yet it was Mendieta who spurned Middlesbrough's most obvious opportunity to make the match safe. There were 25 minutes remaining when Szilard Nemeth's pull-back found Mendieta's boots in the area 10 yards out and unmarked. There would have been nobody McClaren would rather have seen given the chance and yet it finished up driven over the bar.
Smith ensured some face would be saved but draws are no longer any good to Manchester United, not even in October.
Goals: Downing (33) 0-1; Smith (81) 1-1.
Manchester United (4-4-2): Carroll; G Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, Heinze; Ronaldo, O'Shea (Smith, 68), Keane, Giggs; Rooney, Van Nistelrooy. Substitutes not used: Ricardo (gk), Djemba-Djemba, Kleberson, Fortune.
Middlesbrough (4-5-1): Schwarzer; McMahon, Rigott, Southgate, Parnaby (Cooper, 35); Downing (Graham, 87), Zenden, Mendieta, Boateng, Morrison (Doriva, 79); Nemeth. Substitutes not used: Nash (gk), Taylor.
Referee: R Styles (Hampshire).
Booked: United: Keane. Boro: Mendieta.
Man of the match: Mendieta.
Attendance: 67,988.
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