Copy from
Electronic Telegraph


Sunday 24 August 1997
Issue 821


United given stern test by Leicester
By Clive White


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Leicester Pic



   Leicester (0) 0 Man Utd (0) 0
   
   MANCHESTER UNITED will not receive any more severe test of
   their desire to win a fifth championship in six seasons, be it at
   Anfield, St James' Park or Highbury. That is an indication of how the
   one-time no-hopers of Leicester City have blossomed in a little more
   than a season in the Premiership.
   
   United may have hit the post three times and had Leicester's backs
   firmly against the wall in the closing minutes, but they will be well
   satisfied with the point they took away.
   
   It was a game either side could have won and a credit to both that
   they endeavoured to do so. Emile Heskey alone could have had a
   hat-trick in the first nine minutes. As for United, Teddy Sheringham
   will still be wondering how on earth he managed to strike a post from
   a yard.
   
   In a game that was honestly contested from first breath to last, it
   has to be said, though, that the finishing was not of the highest
   order.
   
   On paper, at least, the champions have made a better start than last
   season, even without any wonder goals from David Beckham. In fact, the
   England midfielder has been having to score them this season from an
   even more outrageous position than the halfway line - the substitutes'
   bench. His match-winner when coming on as a second-half substitute at
   home to Southampton last time out, however, virtually dared Alex
   Ferguson to omit him a third time.
   
   Though he suggested beforehand he would do just that, Ferguson
   relented and put arguably the country's most exciting young player
   into his starting line-up, as he did Gary Neville, also left out of
   the first two games.
   
   At least with six reputable forwards on their books, Leicester can
   permutate those up front, but any manager fortunate enough to have the
   likes of Heskey in their side would be a fool to leave out the
   precocious 19-year-old any more than he really has to.
   
   The strapping youngster was given no fewer than three opportunities to
   score in the first nine minutes but, for a variety of reasons, took
   none of them.
   
   After just 65 seconds, Heskey fired fractionally over the bar
   following a mistake by Henning Berg, and then he shot against the legs
   of Peter Schmeichel, as the great Dane spread himself in the wake of a
   poor Beckham pass. The third chance, with which he mistimed a volley
   straight at Schmeichel, had more to do with the generosity of the
   linesman than any failure in United's defence.
   
   It was not long, however, before United were putting such an
   uncharacteristically nervous start behind them. Paul Scholes, left out
   in favour of Beckham but back in when Jordi Cruyff went off injured
   after seven minutes, should have punished Leicester's wastefulness
   when Ryan Giggs picked him out with a cross, but he put the ball just
   wide. Meanwhile, Sheringham, still waiting for his first United goal,
   shot disappointingly straight at Kasey Keller.
   
   The former Tottenham striker, however, surpassed even that display of
   ineptitude when, eight minutes before half-time, with United somewhat
   laboriously asserting themselves, Scholes threw himself full length at
   a Giggs cross. Keller, also at full stretch, could only parry the
   header and Sheringham, following up little more than a yard from goal,
   slammed the ball against the post, as he did the penalty on his debut
   at White Hart Lane.
   
   It is far too early, of course, to talk in terms of the profligate
   Garry Birtles and Peter Davenport, but former Forest strikers do seem
   to have an uncommonly hard time transferring their undoubted skills to
   Old Trafford.
   
   He will have felt better - though not a lot - when from yet another
   pinpoint cross by the excellent Steve Guppy, Muzzy Izzet shot straight
   at the helpless Schmeichel. Feeble finishing was sadly a feature of
   this game but in the opening seconds of the second half, Giggs looked
   to have made it all immaterial as far as United were concerned when a
   prodigious run through the heart of Leicester's defence unhinged the
   home side, but his shot struck the outside of a post.
   
   Scholes later rattled the same upright but in between, Schmeichel and
   Gary Pallister both had to make important interceptions to prevent
   likely goals.
   _________________________________________________________________
   
   Leicester (0) 0 Man Utd (0) 0

   Leicester: Keller, Kaamark, Guppy, Elliott, Prior, Walsh, Izzet,
   Lennon, Heskey, Campbell (Savage 59), Marshall (Claridge 59). Subs Not
   Used: Andrews, Fenton, Parker.

   Man Utd: Schmeichel, G. Neville, Irwin, Pallister, Beckham, Butt,
   Sheringham, Giggs, Keane, Cruyff (Scholes 8), Berg. Subs Not Used: P.
   Neville, McClair, Van Der Gouw, Mulryne.

   Att: 21,221
   Ref: D J Gallagher (Banbury).


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