‘Shaun Goater stood tall at Old Trafford this afternoon as Kevin Keegan's inspired late substitution robbed Manchester United of derby-day revenge.
Trailing to Ruud van Nistelrooy's first-half opener and with neither Robbie Fowler nor Nicolas Anelka making much of an impact, Keegan threw on Goater and Ali Benarbia for the final frenzied five minutes.
The outcome was devastating. With his first touch Benarbia delivered an astute free-kick which Shaun Wright-Phillips chipped into the box where Goater, scorer of two in City's 3-1 triumph over the same opposition in November, steered his header past Roy Carroll.
It might only have grabbed a point for their team, who still have not won on enemy territory since 1974 and could not record their first league double over United for 33 years, but their supporters celebrated as though they had won the league.
City could have had even more, Goater's injury-time effort was ruled out for handball against Anelka, who had steered his team-mate into space after Wright-Phillips' deflected shot had bounced back off the crossbar.
But parity was to be enjoyed when for 85 minutes the familiarity of defeat stared the visitors in the face, only for United to pay for their inability to convert a succession of chances, which meant they went into the final stages clinging to van Nistelrooy's 27th club goal of the season.’