Glorious Giggs is eligible batterer

Welsh winger torments West Ham while Wimbledon enjoy parity at Highbury

Word has it that the West Ham manager, Harry Redknapp, may ask the Premiership to investigate Manchester United for fielding a team of ineligible players. He would take the view that all of the visitors had far too much panache and power of positive thought than can be considered acceptable in one team. In the season of charity and goodwill to all men, they exhibited little towards their hosts, other than teasingly offering them the opportunity just after the break to imagine that they still had a foothold in this spirited contest.

Word has it that the West Ham manager, Harry Redknapp, may ask the Premiership to investigate Manchester United for fielding a team of ineligible players. He would take the view that all of the visitors had far too much panache and power of positive thought than can be considered acceptable in one team. In the season of charity and goodwill to all men, they exhibited little towards their hosts, other than teasingly offering them the opportunity just after the break to imagine that they still had a foothold in this spirited contest.

West Ham have never defeated Sir Alex Ferguson's men in the Premiership. Here, it was evident after the first few minutes that that particular habit was not going to be broken as United eased into a three-goal lead in the first 20 minutes, with Ryan Giggs claiming two and illustrating the imperious form which has occasionally eluded him this season.

There had been enough off-field sub-plots about this affair to satisfy aficionados of Agatha Christie. And, on such occasions, performances can suffer as a result. Not yesterday, though, when such matters as United's boardroom rumblings - with the chairman Martin Edwards and manager Ferguson apparently fitting each other up with a crown of thorns when they should be resting on their laurels - and West Ham's breach of Football League rules took a definite second place to some of the finest football Upton Park will witness all season.

Now, though, West Ham must return to an anxious wait as the League reaches a judgement over their fielding of a cup-tied player, Manny Omoyinmi, against Aston Villa in Wednesday's Worthington Cup quarter-final. The League is expected to announce its ruling tomorrow. The whole issue begs several questions, not least why the player himself didn't let on about his ineligibility? The Hammers could be jettisoned from the competition; however, one might suggest that, as there was clearly no malice aforethought, a replay of the game would be the proper solution. Before yesterday's game, West Ham's official line was that they had no knowledge of him playing for Gillingham in the second round. They emphasised that "the club acted in good faith. Manny appeared for only six minutes... and had no influence on the result... that the tie was won fairly, that the result should stand and that no further action is necessary."

United's operation in an FA Cup exclusion zone meant that it had been 10 days since their last fixture, the 3-0 trouncing of Valencia in the Champions' League. Far from requiring time to gather their wits about them, they tore into West Ham as voraciously as ever. Indeed there were moments in the first half, as they assumed complete authority, that they reduced Redknapp's stricken side to bemused bystanders.

There was almost a touch of cruelty about it. All the goals possessed a touch of class, and none more so than the first, when Roy Keane released David Beckham on the right with a magnificent cross-field pass, whereupon the England man swung across an instantaneous, tantalising low centre which Dwight Yorke dispatched with the minimum of effort from close range. It was the striker's 10th goal of the season, but his first since October, having gone through an unusually barren period, culminating in his manager naming him as substitute for the last two games. Clearly, his omission had only served to refresh his appetite.

He was again involved, just three minutes later, when Giggs audaciously slipped the ball to him with the outside of his foot just inside the area. Yorke duly returned the favour and the left winger deftly tucked it away. The Welshman then appeared to have put the contest beyond the home side, driving the ball home from well outside the area after Beckham's initial attempt had rebounded off Neil Ruddock.

It briefly silenced the home crowd, but they were brought to life again soon after when Ruddock's header across goal was volleyed past Raimond van der Gouw by Paolo Di Canio.

The second part of the first period was far more balanced, although West Ham rarely disturbed the equilibrium of the United back four. Di Canio appeared most likely to breach that rearguard because of his enthusiasm as much as his supreme ball skills, but he became rather over-animated just before the break when claiming a penalty and found himself not only out of luck but cautioned for dissent by the referee, Uriah Rennie.

Shaka Hislop, with a splendid save, denied Giggs his hat-trick just after the interval, as United looked capable of further profit. But Ferguson's men have been vulnerable this season, and they confirmed that fact when, on the break, Marc Keller opened up the visitors' rearguard for Di Canio to advance and take the ball round Van der Gouw before sliding in his ninth goal of the season. United were unsettled and the Italian should have equalised when he burst through again, only to chip the ball straight at the goalkeeper. It was a costly miss. Within seconds, Giggs escaped on the left and, from the goal-line, dispatched a subtle centre which Teddy Sheringham missed but Yorke, behind him, turned in past Hislop to restore United's lead.