Van Nistelrooy breaks Villa in three-goal comeback

Manchester United snatch victory from jaws of defeat as Beckham is restored to the starting line-up

Manchester United answered one fusillade of goals with another here last night to deprive Aston Villa of a victory which would have revived their flagging season. Two goals down with 13 minutes remaining and another early exit from the FA Cup beckoning, United scored three times in five minutes to earn a fourth-round visit to Wimbledon or Middlesbrough.

Until that point it looked as if Sir Alex Ferguson’s side would once more find themselves swept out of the Cup by a dash of claret. Taking their cue from West Ham, United’s conquerors in the fourth round at Old Trafford last season, Villa had found the net twice in two minutes early in the second half.

What it is to have golden options. Ferguson had left Ruud van Nistelrooy on the bench to nurse a groin strain but he brought the Dutchman on once Villa had scored their second goal.

Some groin injury! After Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had given United a glimmer of hope in the 77th minute Van Nistelrooy won them the tie with sublime pieces of finishing in the 80th and 82nd and in so doing became the first United player to score in seven successive matches. His total for the season is now 21.

Thus an initially tepid tie ended up performing an extraordinary double somersault. Even by United’s standards of escapology it was an outstanding recovery.

Thus Villa suffered much as they had done at Arsenal in the Premiership a month earlier, when they led 2-0 only to lose after two late goals from Thierry Henry. Had Juan Pablo Angel accepted a chance to put Villa further in front the contest might have been beyond even United’s reach. Then again, who knows?

United set out to outpass their opponents. The theory seemed to be that the longer Villa were denied the ball the less they would know what to do with it. Yet though this probing football was pleasant to watch it threatened only in theory. There was neither Ryan Giggs, resting a hamstring, to provide the ammunition nor, initially at any rate, Van Nistelrooy to fire the shots.

Nevertheless United should have taken the lead in the 37th minute and had already lost Nicky Butt, another groin victim, forcing Ferguson to reorganise. Paul Scholes joined Roy Keane in a deeper, more central role and the substitute Luke Chadwick offered United a more plausible alternative to Giggs on the wing.

When Solskjaer caught Villa’s defence square with a finely angled pass Chadwick was the recipient, springing through in the inside-right position. He should have scored; his shot beat Peter Schmeichel but also missed the far post.

Within a minute of the second half Keane’s quick pass sent Chadwick clear but only to waft a shot over. It was a miss soon regretted. Villa, having spent half the game striving to unlock United, now leant against the door and opened it with a couple of nudges.

When Angel drew Laurent Blanc and Gary Neville out of position as Lee Hendrie sent a short pass through, Ian Taylor was well placed to hold off Phil Neville’s challenge and drive in a shot under Roy Carroll.

Scarcely had United recovered their wits than they were two goals down. This time a canny lob from Paul Merson caught their defence square and, with Taylor lurking, Phil Neville’s header back caught Carroll out of position and compounded United’s problems with an own-goal.

Ferguson’s immediate substitution of a substitute, replacing Chadwick with Van Nistelrooy, was accompanied by echoes of stable doors closing; false echoes as it turned out. Yet had Angel managed to touch in a chest-high cross from Darius Vassell just past the hour Villa might have felt safe.

A glimpse of salvation was all United required and, once Mikael Silvestre had set up Solskjaer to force his way in front of Olof Mellberg to score, survival was always a possibility. Then possibility quickly became probability as David Beckham headed down a cross from Scholes and Van Nistelrooy took the ball on his chest before driving it into the net.

The rest was predictable. A through-pass from Solskjaer and there was Van Nistelrooy again, calmly rounding Schmeichel to roll in the winner.

Ferguson and the United bench understandably went berserk. Less forgivably, some United fans held up play by invading the pitch.