Forlan's fantasy goal makes up for United's mundane reality

Manchester United 2 Southampton 1

On a day when football matters were put into perspective by the news that a plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham was foiled by police yesterday morning, David Beckham's Manchester United were again hugely disappointing. The free-flowing style of the last few seasons has gone, and they required a very special goal from Diego Forlan to secure an undeserved victory five minutes from time.

This 250th Premiership win keeps Sir Alex Ferguson's men in the title hunt, not to mention the Scot in good spirits ahead of Wednesday's celebration of his 16 years in charge. There will not be much time for partying, however, as United were sluggish and often outpassed by an excellent Southampton team. "We're having to fight every inch of the way at the moment," Ferguson admitted, "but we never quit. That was an important result and, hopefully, we can get up and going to chase the leaders."

It took United 31 seconds to score their opening goal in the corresponding fixture last season, but Southampton are a far more resilient unit these days. "My players are hugely disappointed," Gordon Strachan said, "because they felt really comfortable with the surroundings and thought they could win." A draw would certainly not have flattered them.

United had welcomed back Ruud van Nistelrooy, but the Dutchman had an unusually quiet game as the lone attacker. It tells you everything that his most telling contribution was to push an idiotic "fan" off the pitch early in the second half. The fact that people can run on to the field and get so close to the players is a great concern to the club, and they have promised to review their security arrangements.

United were not at their best early on, but took the lead on the quarter-hour mark. Following last week's surprise goalscorer, Forlan, it was the turn of another occasional net-finder, Phil Neville, to make a name for himself. Collecting a perfect through-ball from Scholes, which split the Southampton defence down the middle, Neville junior burst into the box and beat Antti Niemi with a deflected left-foot shot. The Old Trafford faithful must have thought that their team were back in business after two disappointing League draws, but the old defensive frailties that have plagued United's season returned within three minutes. James Beattie nodded a long ball down to Brett Ormerod, who then found Fabrice Fernandes unmarked on the right wing. The Frenchman cut inside one defender and promptly unleashed a sweet left-foot curler into the bottom of Fabien Barthez's net.

The game opened up thereafter, with both sides looking to break in numbers at every opportunity. Beckham, who knew nothing of the kidnap plot until after the final whistle, jumped higher than everyone to nod Ryan Giggs's corner towards goal, but his rare header was cleared off the line by Matt Oakley. Then, on the stroke of half-time, Southampton very nearly took the lead. Michael Svensson broke United's tentative offside trap to get a foot to Fernandes's teasing cross, but watched his half-volley miss the goal by inches.

Southampton threatened first after the restart, as Beattie latched on to a loose ball on the right of the United box, before shooting across the face of goal from 12 yards. It looked as if his effort would nestle into the far side of the net, but Barthez got down smartly to save the home team's blushes. How Sir Alex could do with the rest of his troops being on top of their game. Apart from Barthez, only Ferdinand looked anything like his best. The watching national coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, will not have taken many more positives from the performances of his other England regulars, as Gary Neville, Beckham and Scholes were all well below par. "We were probably a bit lucky," Phil Neville admitted. "If we'd dropped points, questions would have been asked of us with regards to the title."

The Old Trafford crowd are not known for voicing their disapproval at this United generation, but it was significant to note that the fans were singing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's name long before he was introduced midway through the half. In the event, though, the Norwegian supersub was not the replacement who had the greatest impact. That honour fell to the man who only opened his League account last weekend, Forlan. The Uruguayan, who needed 23 Premiership games before finding the net against Aston Villa, had only been on the pitch for six minutes when he collected a neat Veron pass 25 yards out from the Southampton goal before rifling an unstoppable right-foot shot into the top corner of Niemi's net.

United had their win, but the style is still nowhere to be seen.

Manchester United 2
P Neville 15, Forlan 85

Southampton 1
Fernandes 18

Half-time: 1-1 Attendance: 67,691