He just has to show patience”, just as Ferguson’s opposite number, Glenn Hoddle, showed patience with Burley “He’s distraught in there,” he said. “Beckham has been one of our best players today,” Ferguson commented “It’s difficult to keep him out of the team all the time But I still feel he’s getting stronger. Both teams tried to play.”Ferguson, who revealed he had been forced to attack Chelsea because of an injury to Steve Bruce removed him of security at the back, said he felt the turning point in the match was Peter Schmeichel’s save from Wise in the final 10 minutes.”It was a world-class save,” he said. “If we had gone to two each it would have been a hard, hard battle for us. I think we deserved to win.”The victory, United’s ninth successive FA Cup semi-final success, was secured by David Beckham, who was played through by the unfortunate Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley.

I didn’t see anything although Dennis Wise could start a row in an empty house. If you don’t have any confrontation in a semi-final then the game is struggling. In terms of incident it was as quiet a match as you could get.”Roy’s an unfortunate player. He got booked for his first foul of the match while there were plenty of players who got away with it `Sparky’ [Mark Hughes] had his usual 20 fouls I don’t think it was a game that was hard to handle. Whereas in Dublin he had been punished, yesterday he got away with it.The incident occurred in the 64th minute when Keane was involved in a fracas with Dennis Wise, appearing to slap the Chelsea captain across the head, but just like the referee, Alex Ferguson, missed the incident.”Maybe you’ll enlighten me,” the United manager said “No doubt somebody will. Four days after being dismissed playing for the Republic of Ireland, he flirted with the possibility of being sent off again.
Keane sees the red card almost as often as the red mist and Wednesday’s indiscretion marked the fourth time he had been dismissed in a year.

It was missed by television and, fortunately for Roy Keane, by the referee, but the one time yesterday’s FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park threatened to boil over the Irishman was, almost inevitably, involved. Substitutes not used: Parker, McClair, Scholes.Referee: S Lodge (Barnsley).Bookings: Chelsea: Myers Manchester United: Keane, Butt.Man of the match: Cantona.. The key intervention came from Peter Schmeichel, with his legs from Wise after 76 minutes. He also denied Wise with his hands from Johnsen’s cross in injury time.Cantona was also frustrated when Hitchcock parried his close-range header, but in his case disappointment was only temporary.Chelsea (3-6-1): Hitchcock; Duberry, Lee (Furlong, 87), Myers; Clarke (Johnsen, 38), Gullit, Burley, Wise, Spencer, Phelan (Peacock, 64); Hughes.Manchester United (4-4-2): Schmeichel; P Neville, May, G Neville, Sharpe; Beckham, Keane, Butt, Giggs; Cantona, Cole.

Five minutes later Burley mis-hit an ambitious hitch-kick back-pass, Beckham ran on and, with Kevin Hitchcock committing himself early, slid the ball by him.Then came Cantona’s headed clearance, Keane’s boxing impression, and three terrific saves. But there was Cantona, a yard off his own goal-line, to head away.The feeling that it was to be United’s day, which had seemed in doubt when Beckham and Cantona struck a post each in the first period, intensified when Roy Keane escaped being sent off for the second successive semi-final.Keane, who was dismissed for stamping on Gareth Southgate on this ground a year ago – and was sent off playing for Ireland on Wednesday – appeared to strike Dennis Wise after the Chelsea captain had argued with Beckham. Then Beckham, capitalising on an awful mistake by Burley, put United ahead.Burley almost atoned immediately, setting up Gullit for a chance which led to John Spencer arrowing a volley towards goal. First Eric Cantona, whose influence ultimately eclipsed Gullit, set up Cole for a 54th-minute equaliser. Leading through a Gullit goal 10 minutes before half-time, Chelsea went out of the Cup in five dramatic second-half minutes. Then she let it drop among the seats where it remained, a testament to Chelsea’s broken dreams.Her desolation would have been matched in the Chelsea dressing-room, especially by Craig Burley. Ten minutes earlier they had been in the midst of a raucous sea of blue-and-white, now they were alone.As they got up to leave one of them, a little girl wearing a Ruud Gullit wig, held for the last time a cardboard and tin foil replica FA Cup as tall as she was.

(Guillan-Barre Syndrome, which affects the nervous system, was associated with its use. More than 5 per cent of sufferers died.) Quite apart from the unnecessary deaths, the cost must have been more than pounds 170m – a few billion at today’s values.What if the UK had reacted in a similar way to some recent health scares and fads – for instance the idea that vitamins promote intelligence? Following the thinking of some “mavericks” we could have fed children potentially toxic doses of vitamins. So “put not thy trust in mavericks” – they get it wrong more often than they get it right.Dr Ron GardnerNorthwich, Cheshire. Chelsea 1

Gullit, 35 Manchester Utd 2
Cole, 54 Beckham, 59Att: 38,421Forty minutes after David Beckham had scored the goal that yesterday earned Manchester United a third successive FA Cup final, a family of Chelsea supporters sat quietly in Villa Park’s Holte End.