Football: Ferguson strike sentences Boro to familiar fate

Wrexham 2 Middlesbrough 1

SIR ALEX FERGUSON is an extraordinary man but shares some things with all fathers and when he launched his son, Darren, on a professional career in football he naturally hoped one day to see the boy's name in lights. On Saturday it happened.

Whether his paternal dreams ever included this, only he knows; and as he witnessed at first hand the joyous scenes at the Racecourse Ground he was not telling. On this of all days, the Manchester United manager's thoughts on the FA Cup were not for public consumption.

Of course, we should have seen it coming. Wrexham, three months without a win in the Second Division but with giant-slaying deeds still fresh in the memory, against the modern Premiership archetype of fading stars and foreigners for whom such occasions occur in bad dreams - and on a cold, wet, windy North Wales afternoon for good measure.

What's more, as Brian Flynn, Wrexham's long-serving manager, said afterwards, it would take "something unexpected and special" to win such a tie. Was there any Wrexham player more likely to provide it?

Darren Ferguson's career achievements may be less impressive than his father's but his qualifications are sound. He did, after all, spend his formative years at Old Trafford, even winning a Championship medal for his part in the 1992-93 campaign. The present cannot deny the past.

The unexpected and special happened twice, in the event. First when little Robin Gibson, one of six under-21s in Wrexham's side, pushed Ferguson's pass into the Middlesbrough box and equalised; and then when Ferguson, going solo, took a diagonal route past three or four static defenders to fire home the winner.

"It was one of my best goals," Ferguson said, "and the better for coming in a match like this, which means so much to the club. I spoke to my dad briefly after the game and he was pleased for me."

In his father's ideals, it is probably reasonable to suppose, Darren - at 27 just a few months younger than Roy Keane - would have been part of the Manchester United squad that has been excused from defending the world's oldest and most famous trophy in order to challenge for another of unknown future in Brazil next month.

In real life, however, dad was forced to conclude some years ago that Darren would never be Roy Keane and sold him, in 1994, to Wolverhampton Wanderers for pounds 250,000. By 1998 he was out of favour there and last year, after a projected move to Italy came to nothing, he joined Sparta Rotterdam, where he spent seven months on loan. When that excursion ended, in Wrexham stepped.

"He is with us on what would best be called an open-ended arrangement," Flynn said. Wrexham's reality is that they cannot afford to offer him better, existing as they are forced to do on gates often less than a quarter of Saturday's.

A few more similar days, of course, and their bank account will look much healthier but, Flynn said, there are other clubs interested, including some in Europe. Ferguson sees himself as "better suited to playing abroad" and the appeal of a Nationwide Second Division club without a League win since mid-September is clearly limited.

For the moment, of course, such mundane matters are put on hold. Middlesbrough, for whom Paul Gascoigne was anonymous and the talents of Juninho, Christian Ziege and Hamilton Ricard ineffective, had fulfilled their role as fall guys and gone the way of Arsenal (1992), West Ham (1997) and their own side of 1974 in succumbing to Wrexham's brand of Welsh passion.

Long live the glory of the Cup.

Goals: Deane (42) 0-1; Gibson (50) 1-1; Ferguson (68) 2-1.

Wrexham (4-4-2): Dearden; McGregor, S Roberts (Ridler, 81), Carey, Hardy; Gibson (Owen, 72), Russell, Ferguson, Williams; Faulconbridge (Connolly, 66), N Roberts. Substitutes not used: Morrell, Walsh (gk).

Middlesbrough (3-5-2): Schwarzer; Festa, Pallister (Gavin, 40), Vickers; Stamp, Juninho, Gascoigne, Mustoe, Ziege; Ricard, Deane. Substitutes not used: Armstrong, Summerbell, Marinelli, Beresford (gk).

Referee: S Lodge (Barnsley).

Bookings: Wrexham: S Roberts, N Roberts.

Man of the match: Ferguson.

Attendance: 11,755.