Cantona spares Reds' blushes

Football: Manchester United 2 (Butt 13, Cantona 80) Sunderland 2 (Agnew 61, Russell 64) Attendance: 41,563

THAT Eric Cantona is immune to FA Cup fever was obvious from the nerveless way in which he converted two penalties in the 1994 final against Chelsea. Yesterday his sang-froid saved Manchester United from what would have been their first third-round exit since 1984 and denied a vibrant Sunderland team the victory that few would have begrudged them.

United were trailing 2-1 with 11 minutes to go when Lee Sharpe swung over a free-kick from the right, deep to the far post. Perhaps it should have been cleared. But when the heads went up it was Cantona's that was highest and he calmly tucked the ball away. One minute United could not even find the door, the next they had escaped.

It was hard on Sunderland who played with intelligence as well as passion, made light of going a goal down after 13 minutes and, in an inspired spell early in the second half, scored twice in three minutes to conjure visions of some of their great cup exploits of the past. It was still a tremendous result for the First Division side, but inevitably the mood in the dressing room afterwards was one of real disappointment.

Both managers, Peter Reid of Sunderland and Alex Ferguson of United, were as one in saying they could not see the men from the Premiership getting back into the match. "We feel we did well enough to win it," Reid said. Ferguson felt that because big occasions occur so often at Old Trafford his team had trouble raising their game.

"I thought we were outplayed for most of the match," he said. "They came to play a cup-tie. We came to play a normal game. You count on experience on days like this, but there's no substitute for the desire to win that Sunderland brought, and the support from their fans was like having an extra man. We are lucky to get a second chance."

While United may have become too caught up in other concerns for their own good, the fervour generated by Sunderland's supporters was a reminder of how much this competition still means to the vast majority of clubs. Some 8,000 of them filled the Warwick Road end and they outsang their opposite numbers throughout what was a noisy afternoon.

The Sunderland players responded superbly. The front pairing of the 21- year-old Craig Russell and the Northern Ireland international Phil Gray was such a handful that the return after injury of Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister and Denis Irwin gave the United defence little more solidity than it had during the brief era of William Prunier. David Kelly's wing play was cunning and purposeful and in midfield Paul Bracewell added undoubted class to the side's all-round commitment.

Bracewell was one of only two survivors from the Sunderland team that lost the 1992 final to Liverpool and when the other, the captain Kevin Ball, went off with a thigh strain midway through the first half, it would have been understandable if the team had lost their way. But Ball's replacement, Steve Agnew, was outstanding in central midfield, scoring the equaliser and creating the second.

A mood of buoyancy in the Sunderland ranks was set in the opening seconds when Irwin mis-hit a back pass and Russell forced Gary Neville to clear off the line. Bracewell then fired narrowly over and Phil Gray just failed to connect with a cross from Russell. So productive was the Sunderland attack that even when United went ahead after 13 minutes - Nicky Butt rounding off an intricate move with a chip over Alec Chamberlain - the underlying pattern of the match remained the same.

Michael Gray, a nimble attacker down the left, lashed a 25-yard attempt against a post and Phil Gray spun on a shot in a crowded area which with better contact might not have given Kevin Pilkington the chance to drop on to the ball. But in the 59th minute, Agnew drove in a low shot from 20 yards after Michael Gray's jinking run had split the United defence open. Pilkington was then beaten to his left again after Agnew had lobbed the ball forward for Russell to run on and shoot.

The scene was set for Sunderland, but Cantona, a master of drama, ended up stealing it.