VIEWS FROM THE PRESS BOX

Last updated : 30 October 2002 By Editor

Sir Alex Ferguson's decision to leave Manchester United's Champions League ambitions to look after themselves while his top players concentrated on minding the Premiership shop rebounded on him with one of the most humiliating defeats of his Old Trafford career, which could yet have long-term ramifications.

With his team already through to the second stage, this result probably will not matter to United when the final points in Group F are totted up. But it will matter greatly to Bayer Leverkusen and Olympiakos, who will be furious that Ferguson's decision has given Maccabi a lifeline to qualification.

As expected, Ferguson, who left nine first team players at home, gave a first start to 18-year-old Kieran Richardson. And whereas the manager normally packs his bench with multi-millionaires, on this occasion he filled it with so many unfamiliar faces that one wondered whether the hoaxer who once infiltrated their team for a pre-match photo had managed to slip in unnoticed again, along with a few pals.

Even diehard United fans might have struggled to identify some of the substitutes, four of whom - Lee Roche, Mark Lynch, Daniel Nardiello and Mads Timm - had never started a first-team game.

Richardson offered a passable imitation of Ryan Giggs, whom he replaced on the left wing, with a confident dribble into the box and was later denied a goal only by a deflection from Avishay Zano. But this was a night for United's big-name players to nurse the inexperienced ones through a match that, though lacking any real significance for them, was not short of passion provided by their own Cypriot fan club and Maccabi's drum-banging travelling army.

Maccabi seemed either unwilling, or unable, to venture too far forward. Yet to the delight and disbelief of their supporters, they were 2-0 ahead in the 56th minute when another long-range special, this time from Raimondas Zutauttas, found the left-hand corner of the net.

United, who had begun the evening with the seemingly simple target of setting a club record of 17 games without defeat in the Champions League, needed someone like Giggs or Beckham to step off the bench to alter the pattern and pace of the game. But with no one of that calibre available, it seemed hardly to matter which of the youngsters Ferguson sent on, the manager choosing to replace Richardson with the 20-year-old Nardiello.