Football: The ghosts gang up on United

Title tightrope: Ferguson's treble chancers feel the heat as old friends seek to influence destiny

WHEN DAVID ELLERAY blew his whistle for the final time at Anfield on Wednesday night Alex Ferguson's face was as white as the shirts worn by his players. The man from Govan looked as though he had seen a ghost, which of course he had, in the form of the self-styled Guv'nor. Paul Ince, whom Ferguson sold to Internazionale in the summer of 1995, "because he wasn't listening to my instructions and was going forward too much", had advanced to within six yards of the Kop end goal to strike the late equaliser that tilted the odds in the Premiership title race against his old club and his old boss.

It was a harrowing night all round for the Manchester United manager, thanks to "the curse of Elleray", as perceived injustices at the refereeing hands of the Harrow housemaster have become known at Old Trafford. And if Ferguson headed back up the East Lancs Road suspecting the past was returning to haunt him, those fears will hardly be eased when the Manchester United team bus pulls up outside the Riverside Stadium this afternoon. What price Gary Pallister popping up with a decisive goal against the club he helped to four titles? According to Ladbrokes, 40-1. And what price Bryan Robson's Middlesbrough to win 3-2? You'll get 66-1 for that one.

Robson's Boro have already beaten United 3-2 this season, of course. Not that Ferguson has first-hand recall of the occasion. A family bereavement kept him away from Old Trafford on 19 December, the day Hamilton Ricard, Dean Gordon and Brian Deane put Middlesbrough 3-0 ahead inside the hour with the Teessiders in the 55,000 crowd discourteously enquiring: "Are you City in disguise?" It proved to be the seasonal turning point for United. The fightback came within a last-minute Mark Schwarzer save (from Andy Cole) of salvaging a point on the day and has continued ever since - up to the final 20 minutes on Wednesday night, at any rate.

The Anfield collapse, inspired by Elleray's beguiling penalty award against Jesper Blomqvist, may prove to be a decisive twist in the tail of the Red Devils' Premiership campaign. They remain unbeaten since Middlesbrough's visit to Old Trafford, a run of 28 matches in league and cups, though the 2-2 draw at Liverpool must have seemed like a defeat, and not just because of the Kop chorusing "Always look on the bright side of life" as Ferguson's players departed the pitch, heads bowed. United did lose on Wednesday - a two-goal lead, and with it the title initiative.

"That's true," Brian Greenhoff acknowledged, the morning after the night before. "But I still think United will do it - if they win on Sunday. People are talking about Arsenal's game at Leeds as the key to the championship but I think the Middlesbrough match could be the vital one. A win would put United back on top, on goals scored or goals difference, and that would put the pressure on Arsenal going to Leeds on Tuesday. And that will be a hard game for Arsenal to win. David O'Leary, I'm sure, will be saying to his players, 'Hey, you can go out and beat the champions here'."

It was a similar challenge, issued on the Doc's orders, to which Greenhoff and his fellow Manchester United players famously responded at Wembley on 22 May 1977. The Liverpool team they faced in the FA Cup final that afternoon were pursuing the same trophy treble Ferguson and his class of '98-'99 have been chasing. Bob Paisley's boys were already champions of England and four days later, in Stadio Olimpico, Rome, they were crowned champions of Europe. They did not, however, take the FA Cup back to Anfield. The old tin pot went to Old Trafford instead, courtesy of a freak deflection off Greenhoff's elder brother, Jimmy. It gave Tommy Docherty's unfancied United a 2-1 win, though they also needed the good fortune of a Ray Kennedy header cannoning off Alex Stepney's right-hand post.

On such fateful moments can trebles be won and lost, as Brian Greenhoff, now working for a sports goods wholesalers in Manchester, duly reflected on Thursday morning. "Yes, that goal went in off Jimmy's chest and arms," he said. "And Liverpool would never have scored last night except for a crap decision by the referee. They just never looked like scoring. But we played very well that day in 1977. We worked very hard. Liverpool just didn't perform. They picked the wrong team. We thought they'd play Ian Callaghan instead of David Johnson, which they did when they won the European Cup final four days later. It's pretty similar for United now as it was for Liverpool then. The games have come thick and fast. They've had no rest. But I don't really think you can compare the two situations. The game wasn't so high profile. The pressure was nothing like as great as it is today."

That pressure was etched on Ferguson's furrowed brow at the final whistle on Wednesday. Not that the big-money deal he had signed the previous day - a three-year contract worth pounds 5m - had anything to do with it. He was merely feeling the managerial strain of the championship fight, more so than when he won his first Premiership title six years ago. On that occasion, he was on the 17th hole of his local golf course when a stranger approached with the news that Aston Villa had unexpectedly slipped up at Oldham. "Mr Ferguson, it's all over," the unknown messenger said. "United are champions."

Mr Ferguson did not make it to the 18th hole that afternoon. His players, having spent the night and long into the morning celebrating chez Bruce, could have been excused for not making it to Old Trafford the following evening. But the champagne flowed into their football as they beat Blackburn 3-1. Ince scored the second goal. Pallister scored the third. And Robson, a substitute for Brian McClair, stepped up with Bruce to lift the championship trophy.

"The fact that I had such a long career at Old Trafford doesn't come into it," Robson insisted on Friday as he prepared to plot the downfall of the club he served with distinction for 13 seasons. "I've got to get on with my own job. Alex Ferguson always used to say that nobody does you any favours in this game. If you win things, you win them off your own bat."

It would certainly help United's cause if they emulated Arsenal's feat of a fortnight ago and hit Boro for six today, though Ferguson would happily settle for the nicking of an untidy single-goal victory. At the very least, he will send out his players to settle a score with the world after Wednesday's score-draw. "We'll recover from it," he vowed, as he left Anfield.

It was at Middlesbrough that United clinched the championship three years ago. That 3-0 success, achieved with Pallister at the heart of United's defence, inspired the popular Reds' ditty: "We're going to win the league again... down by the Riverside." United won't win it down by the Riverside this time, but they could as good as lose it there - to a long-odds goal from an old Pal, even. If not, there will still be an Old Trafford old boy waiting to trip them up around the corner - around the corner of the M61 that is, where Brian Kidd's Blackburn will be fighting for their Premiership life on Wednesday.