City make their point as United's costly strikers draw another blank

Think of the great one-sided contests of our times. The Charge of the Light Brigade. The Little Big Horn. The St Valentine's Day Massacre. Half the Bath rugby team against Stan Collymore.

And then add yesterday's 134th Manchester derby at Old Trafford.

City broke out of their own penalty area once or twice. That much is true.

But each time, they wore the hunted look of a fugitive who knew he was going to be hunted down. And then the bombardment would begin again.

Yet somehow, as if Eileen Drewery had thrown up one of her famous force fields around their goal, City survived.

The worrying reality for United and their fans as they slip further and further away from London's private title race is that their Who's Who of strikers can't score.

Some credit must go to City. Richard Dunne was heroic in their defence. Sylvain Distin backed him up superbly. Every member of Kevin Keegan's depleted side ran himself into the ground.

To add to the atmosphere of siege, United appealed for a penalty at a rate of roughly once every five minutes.

Let's just say that if United's favourite referee Mike Riley had been the man in black yesterday, Sir Alex Ferguson's team would have had plenty of penalty practice.

Instead, Ferguson hollered in vain at yesterday's ref Graham Poll until his ruddy face turned purple.

United had more than pounds 60m worth of attacking talent on the pitch when Wayne Rooney replaced Paul Scholes late in the second half. Still no goals.

United have now managed just 11 goals in their opening 12 games. That's two less than City. And two less than Crystal Palace.

The days when they would have turned all their possession yesterday into an avalanche of goals have long gone and the impotence of their strikers is becoming an acute embarrassment.

It is not as if they are not getting the service. Ronaldo sent over cross after cross. So did Giggs. But without the suspended hot-shot Ruud van Nistelrooy, United lack a dedicated goalscorer.

It has got to the point now where Ferguson is becoming openly scornful of the feeble efforts of his strikers.

A week ago, he suggested that if things got any worse, he would have to start picking himself in the United forward line. On yesterday's evidence, that might not be such a bad idea.

"We have to get a scoreline that encourages us to think that goalscoring is part of the game," Ferguson said with withering sarcasm.

"We are not good enough to win championships on that sort of form. I can't excuse anyone at the club for that. We can't keep missing our chances."

Van Nistelrooy, who scored four against Sparta Prague last Wednesday, will be back for the game against Newcastle on Sunday but he is struggling for goals in the Premiership, too.

And anyway, it may already be too late by then. United are 11 points behind a Chelsea team that looks ominously solid.

Championships are not won in November, as everyone is bored of hearing, but United are going the right way about losing one before Christmas. They are going backwards.

Every time they play, there is an expectation that this will be the game where the dam bursts and the goals pour in. But their fans are getting tired of dashed hopes.

And as they poured out of Old Trafford well before the final whistle yesterday, the taunts of the City fans ringing in their ears, one scary thought must have been haunting the minds of United's fans.

If Alan Smith, Louis Saha, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney can't score against a Kevin Keegan back four, what hope is there when they come up against a manager that actually knows how to defend?

MAN UTD: Carroll, Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, Heinze, Miller (Giggs 46), Keane, Scholes (Rooney 77), Ronaldo, Saha, Smith.

MAN CITY: James, Mills, Dunne, Distin, Jordan, Flood, Bosvelt, McManaman, Sibierski, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anelka.