Exeter's pride and passion lift the spirit but United class tells in end

It was supposed to be a clinical operation, a Sir Alex Ferguson master plan prepared as carefully as a wind-up of Arsène Wenger.

And that's how it was shaping until something extraordinary flowed through the players of Exeter City.

It was their bizarre belief that though they cost around £100m less than the great Manchester United - or on this night perhaps not so great - they had every right to share a field and dream their dreams.

In the end the belief was smashed by the late intervention of Wayne Rooney, who like celebrated his young colleague Cristiano Ronaldo had spent most of the evening being mocked by the fans who were proud to announce, over and over again, "We are Exeter".

That meant a club convinced that it could rekindle those days when the FA Cup supplied romance almost as a matter of course.

Ferguson said quite ferociously that he had had enough of that nonsense in the first leg at Old Trafford, where the Conference team played United's to a deeply embarrassing goalless draw. A crowd of 67,000 watched that slide from the mountain tops and just a fraction - 9,000 - squeezed into St James' Park in the wind and the swirling rain. But they made almost as much noise as the prawn sandwich brigade and for some very good reasons.

The truth was that Ferguson became increasingly restive as Exeter resolutely turned down the invitation to be cowed by Ronaldo's early goal. Indeed, United lost all the crisp authority they presented when the forward line of Ryan Giggs, Rooney, Paul Scholes and Ronaldo lined up. By the second half it was Andy Taylor who was most consistently at the centre of attention.

He sent in one magnificent free-kick, forcing a fine save from Tim Howard, and he reminded his local fans why it was he once had three years to achieve his own glory at Old Trafford.

It didn't happen but you can see how it just might have done. Taylor played with impressive commitment as Ronaldo and Rooney played with ever increasing extravagance. It was wasteful work and long before the end they were being relentlessly taunted from the terraces. Maybe there was a hint of envy when Rooney and Ronaldo produced some extraordinary moment of virtuosity, but overall there was a certain puritan virtue crowd assessments. Both players were wasteful and frequently failed to produce that killer touch which had been demanded by Ferguson. However at the start and the finish of the game they did remind Exeter that here was a huge disparity of talent.

Rooney settled it in the end, but not before he had again shown worrying evidence of failure to control his temper with the defender Danny Clay, one of the more heroic of the home favourites, and required a firm dressing down by the referee Phil Dowd.

The referee, though, reached for his book on just one occasion, putting Kwame Ampadu into it for a two-footed tackle on Ronaldo. Here just perhaps was the potential for another bout of indiscipline when Rooney persisted with his complaints then - mercifully - we saw what he should really all about. His late goal was fired with all of his most convincing of his authority.

Ronaldo too showed some beautiful moments, but too often his resolve was questionable. He flopped and he sprawled and the crowd were merciless.

However, their joy at signs of their team's recovery from the impact of Ronaldo's earlier assault on their confidence was always vulnerable when you considered the weight of talents in the red shirts.

Giggs left early after finding the field and the tackling became increasingly heavy. Scholes, though persistent to the end, rarely showed the influence that he has been displaying so dramatically in recent games.

Steve Perryman, Exeter's director of football, seized the moment, believing that his men were about to find again the passion that drew the attention of the football world 10 days earlier. Several times he leapt from his seat, and most hopefully when striker Sean Devine just failed to convert a superb cross by Clay.

It was the kind of work that certainly left a dwindling sense of United's huge edge in class and explains why Exeter are a club showing every sign of regaining healthy life after nearly going bust a year ago.

Here we saw the passion and the grit that makes the Cup always full of the most thrilling possibilities at whatever level you operate in football. It was something, however, that Ferguson could only contemplate with any pleasure or relief when Rooney strode in to make sure of victory.

It was the power and the certainty he had demanded in his anger 10 days ago. It came, however, a little too late and at times too precariously for his liking.