Football Commentary: Rovers' resolve revolving round cold steel: Hair-raising Shearer puts wind up United

'UNCLE' Jack Walker strode out of Ewood Park without a word to the pursuing hack pack, but his broad smile said it all. He was proud of the football his beloved Blackburn were playing, but he had recognised something more in his rampant Rovers - something he knew better than most. Cold steel. There had been much debate about whether the team that Jack bought had the nerve to stay the course in a championship transformed from a procession into a full-blooded race for the line. Their answer was mightily impressive.

In beating Manchester United 2-0 before an ecstatic home crowd on Saturday, Blackburn gave us more 'bottle' than Unigate. Suddenly, the size nine is on the other foot, and all the questions are being asked of a United team who have tied up in the final furlong before, and are showing unmistakable signs of doing so again.

Nine points from the last 21, well beaten in the Coca-Cola Cup final, and enough red cards for a game of Hearts, the champions need to dig deep for their lost composure if a season which promised unprecedented success is not to end in tears. United have an early chance to stir themselves when Oldham Athletic come calling today. Anything less than three points against Joe Royle's relegation battlers could really put the wind up an increasingly hyper team.

A short crawl round the M62, Blackburn will be looking to stoke up the pressure by winning at Everton. The right results from the Ewood viewpoint would see United's advantage - a swaggering 16 points at one stage - wiped out completely come 4.45. For the moment, the odds still favour the champions. The initiative, though, has passed to the challengers, and what looked like a walk-over could easily develop into a photo-finish.

In fairness Blackburn, with 14 wins and two draws in their last 18 League games, would be romping away with the title but for United's excellence over the first two-thirds of the season. It was the end of February before their processional progress slowed, with a 2-2 draw at West Ham followed by that 1-0 defeat at home to mediocre Chelsea.

Blackburn pounded away in hope rather than expectation. The feeling within the club was that they were not quite ready. Another big buy or two, and another season, were needed to complete a three-year plan which would turn a team that needed the play-offs to gain promotion into the best in the country. That was the theory. In practice, they are going for it in a big way, eager to complete the transition 12 months ahead of schedule.

On Saturday they looked the part as would-be champions and, blessed with the easier run-in, you would need to be as rich as the avuncular Jack to wager anything of substance against them.

The first half was, to borrow Alex Ferguson's phrase, a non-event. Two combative midfields - Batty and Sherwood, Keane and Ince - cancelled each other out in an attritional stalemate which left neither goalkeeper with a save to make.

Pace, power and passion - the traditional British virtues - we had in abundance. What the game cried out for was some of the flair and instinctive free-flowing football with which United had threatened to settle the issue by Christmas. Come back Cantona, all is forgiven.

Heresy at Ewood, of course, where they ooh and aah over the more robust, Anglo-Saxon attributes of the man who could lead England's attack for the next 10 years. United tried to buy Alan Shearer, but balked at the wages Blackburn offered him. False economy. If the title does change hands next month, it will be because of Shearer's remarkable scoring record, which now stands at 45 goals in 54 Premiership appearances since his pounds 3.3m transfer from Southampton.

The second half was barely a minute old when he turned a building site into a blast furnace by heading in No 44, from Tim Sherwood's right-wing cross. Game on.

Duly inspired, Batty and Sherwood were first to everything now, mining a rich seam of possession for Stuart Ripley and Jason Wilcox to put to good use on the flanks. Wilcox, going it alone, should have improved the lead, but finished weakly, while Andrei Kanchelskis would have equalised with a close- range volley but for a reaction save of the highest order from Tim Flowers.

Combustion at last. The second 45 minutes were as gripping as the first had been dull, Ince bobbling a mishit shot against Flowers' left- hand post after an electrifying surge by Kanchelskis, and Mark Hughes going close from distance.

Decent chances both, but United were labouring, their forwards well held by a defence in which Colin Hendry was a colossus, their midfield shaded by the spiky spirit and distributive economy of the ever- improving Batty and his unsung but enormously influential accomplice, Sherwood.

Three more points ebbing away, Ferguson had to go for broke, and replaced a full-back, Paul Parker, with the scoring potential of Brian McClair. The gamble failed. Their defence thrown out of kilter, United were vulnerable to the penetrative long ball with which Ripley released Shearer for a goal which raised hairs on the necks of the most blase onlookers.

Gary Pallister might have got there first, Peter Schmeichel, standing tall, must have made the target look minute, but thunderboots was power and single-mindedness personified as he burst past his England team-mate and smashed in a shot which left the world's best goalkeeper powerless to intervene. And this with the left foot he insists is only for standing on.

The stadium erupted in joyful salute - none happier than the little girl in the family enclosure wearing a replica No 9 shirt. The lettering on the back spelled not Shearer but God. Sacrilegious, perhaps, but no one in this congregation was inclined to argue, with Blackburn rising, triumphant.

'Quite a good result,' was a typical understatement from Kenny Dalglish - one Ferguson came close to matching when he said a 'vital win' had made it 'a bit interesting now'. He had 'no complaints' with the result, only with the failure of 'one or two' of his players to perform. 'We have to start reasserting ourselves again. With seven games to go, the chips are down.'

A steady nerve is what United need most of all. Mental fortitude, plus some of that Walker steel.

Goals: Shearer (46) 1-0; Shearer (76) 2-0.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Flowers; Berg, May, Hendry, Le Saux; Ripley, Batty, Sherwood, Wilcox; Newell (Marker, 86), Shearer. Substitutes not used: Wright, Mimms (gk).

Manchester United (4-4-2): Schmeichel; Parker (McClair, 70), Bruce, Pallister, Irwin; Kanchelskis, Ince, Keane, Sharpe; Giggs, Hughes. Substitutes not used: Robson, Sealey (gk).

Referee: R Milford (Bristol).

----------------------------------------------------------------- THE TITLE RUN-IN ----------------------------------------------------------------- MANCHESTER UNITED: Today: Oldham Athletic (h); 13 April Leeds United (a); 16 April Wimbledon (a); 25 April Manchester City (h); 1 May Ipswich Town (a); 4 May Southampton (h); 7 May Coventry City (h). BLACKBURN ROVERS: Today Everton (a); 11 April Aston Villa (h); 16 April Southampton (a); 24 April Queen's Park Rangers (h); 27 April West Ham United (a); 2 May Coventry City (a); 7 May Ipswich Town (h). -----------------------------------------------------------------

(Photograph omitted)