Walsh's howler opens the floodgates

The intriguing thing about Alex Ferguson's protestations that the title is anything but won is that he actually believes what he is preaching.

Every week Manchester United's seventh championship in nine seasons looms closer and every week the manager refrains from divulging chit-chat about the formality of their third championship in succession.

The reasons for his prudence are simple. Ferguson still harbours memories of how Arsenal snatched the title in 1998 after ushering in the new year trailing United by 12 points and, six years before that, how his team were gazumped from another seemingly unassailable position by Leeds.

For the same to happen this year, however, it would need United to keel over like a felled oak. Frankly, the idea is lunacy.

Admittedly the chasm between the top and bottom of the table was not emphasised until later than United may have anticipated, and it is a fact that the catalyst for their win was a ghastly error from Bradford's goalkeeper Gary Walsh.

There were also times, moreover, when Bradford's initial plans for containment were replaced by fleeting moments of adventure that threatened to embarrass their guests.

But three goals in the final 18 minutes did not flatter United for their periods of keep-ball, the number of clear-cut chances they fashioned and, above all, the frequency with which Stuart McCall found himself chasing Ryan Giggs with the heavy-hearted desperation of Wile E Coyote pursuing Road Runner.

Injury-free and uninhibited, Giggs is having one of those spells which once prompted Gary Pallister to observe that marking the Welshman could lead to a bad case of twisted blood. "The way I'm feeling, I can't wait for my next touch," said Giggs. He produced the game's piece de resistance with a body-swerving run and shot for United's second goal but the telling damage had been inflicted three minutes earlier when Walsh shaped to punt a clearance upfield only to end up on the seat of his pants. Teddy Sheringham was presented with the open goal. "It would be wrong to crucify Gary," said Bradford's manager Jim Jefferies, but it was the game's defining moment and as a former United employee the goalkeeper's swipe at thin air must have been particularly mortifying.

"He knows it was an absolute howler," Jefferies added. "He'll have a tough few days. The only way you can pick up a player after something like that is to let him know he will be in the team next week."

By the time United's substitute Luke Chadwick stroked in his first senior goal with an adroit finish from David Beckham's through ball the home fans were doing their sums.

Bradford's tally of 15 points is three fewer than at this stage last season and it promises to get worse before it gets better. "We've seen Leeds disappear before and look what happened then," insisted Ferguson, but those who lust for a contest worthy of the description will carry on being frustrated. United's manager may not be disposed to confess as much, but their 11-point advantage is more liable to double than diminish before the end of the season.

BRADFORD: Walsh, McCall, Jacobs, Atherton, Molenaar, O'Brien, McKinlay, Jess, Windass, Blake (Saunders 66), Ward. Subs Not Used: Davison, Myers, Lawrence, Beagrie. Booked: Molenaar.

MANCHESTER UTD: Barthez, Gary Neville, Irwin, Stam (Brown 65), Silvestre, Phil Neville (Chadwick 65), Beckham, Keane, Solskjaer (Cole 76), Sheringham, Giggs. Subs Not Used: Van Der Gouw, Greening. Goals: Sheringham 72, Giggs 75, Chadwick 87.

Referee: A Wiley (Burntwood).