Teddy Sheringham marked what could be his last game for Manchester United by scoring the match winner against Aston Villa at Villa Park yesterday.
With eight first team regulars missing Alex Ferguson was forced to reshuffle his hand, but no-one would have predicted the side he sent out. Former Villa striker Dwight Yorke lined up in midfield alongside Phil Neville, while Danny Higginbotham made his first start in four months at leftback.
Not surprisingly, with relatively little at stake, the match had a typical end-of-season feel. However, Paul Merson, who was named Villa's player-of-the-year before the match, brought the crowd to life with a great piece of skill.
United gave possession to Lee Hendrie, who back-heeled the ball to Merson and his 20-yard chip was expertly touched away by Raimond van der Gouw.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's match and season came to an abrupt halt when he was caught late by Ugo Ehiogu. The Norwegian tried to carry on after receiving treatment, but he was replaced by Jordi Cruyff who came on to make his farewell appearance.
Merson then fashioned the best chance of the match so far for Carbone after a strong run down the right only for the Italian to shoot narrowly wide from his cross.
Ferguson gave Ronnie Wallwork a run out when he brought him on for Higginbotham at half-time and deployed him at right-back.
Most of the crowd basking in the sun at Villa Park had just started to nod off when Cruyff presented Sheringham with a great chance. The midfielder sprung Villa's offside trap to send Sheringham clear on the right, but the striker dragged his shot across the goal.
That close shave spurred Villa into action and Dion Dublin headed the ball goalwards only for Neville to make a goal-line clearance.
Then on 65 minutes Sheringham made amends for his earlier miss when he scored his sixth goal of the season. Villa could only half block Cruyff's cross and the ball broke to Sheringham who planted it leftfooted into the corner of the net even though Enckelman managed to get a hand to the shot.
Cruyff was certainly going out on a high and he danced through the Villa defence only for Enckelman to save his shot.
Dublin almost snatched a point for Villa against his old club at the death. First he drove narrowly over before he crashed a header against the bar in the final minute.
Aston Villa: Enckelman, Ehiogu, Southgate, Barry, Delaney, Boateng (Thompson 80), Hendrie (Taylor 64), Merson, Wright, Dublin, Carbone (Joachim 59). Subs not used: Samuel, Cutler. Booked: Delaney.
Manchester Utd: Van Der Gouw, P. Neville, Berg, Silvestre, Irwin, Higginbottom (Wallwork 46), Sheringham, Scholes, Giggs, Yorke, Solskjaer (Cruyff 32). Subs not used: Fortune, Greening, Stewart. Booked: Scholes, Cruyff. Goals: Sheringham 65.
Referee: P Durkin (Dorset).
