Soccer: Di Canio dumps Man United out of FA Cup

12:25 PM By PHIL SHAW

There will be no domestic double for Manchester United this spring after their nil-1 defeat to West Ham on Sunday.

West Ham, whose 11 consecutive defeats at Old Trafford had included a 7-1 mauling last April and a 3-1 reverse on New Year's Day, stormed the prawn sandwich citadel on Sunday to reach the FA Cup's last 16 through Paolo di Canio's extraordinary late goal.

With 15 minutes left in an exciting encounter that restored some of the competition's lost sheen, Frédéric Kanouté's pass sprung United's offside trap.

Di Canio raced through, to be confronted by Fabien Barthez, France's World Cup-winning goalkeeper, standing still with his right arm raised in the manner copyrighted by the legendary Arsenal back four.

It was unclear whether the £7.8m Barthez genuinely thought Di Canio had been ruled offside, or was simply trying to psyche him out in the hope that he might pick the ball up as he did at Everton.

Whatever the reality, the Italian angled a low shot beyond Barthez as he dived belatedly and then ran towards the 9,000 West Ham fans with a vindicated smile.

On his only previous competitive appearance here, with Sheffield Wednesday, Di Canio was substituted in a 6-1 rout.

His absence from the line-up on West Ham's recent Premiership visit had prompted his manager, Harry Redknapp, to suggest, only half-jokingly, that he always seemed to be ill or injured when the fixture loomed. So the second stop in his celebratory sprint was a television camera into which he mouthed the words: "I can play at Old Trafford."

West Ham just about resisted the ensuing onslaught, during which Sir Alex Ferguson had all four of his principal strikers on the pitch.

At the death they survived a strong penalty appeal for handball against Nigel Winterburn, just as they had done when Christian Dailly appeared to use an arm in making a first-half clearance, but deserved any breaks they received for the positive way they set about their task.

For it was clear that Harry Redknapp - who was also in charge of Bournemouth when they knocked out United in 1984 - had learned from West Ham's previous hammerings at the theatre of dreams. He switched from a back four to a three, sought to block off the flanks by deploying wing-backs in an engine-room quintet and made a point of stifling Teddy Sheringham.

West Ham made the strategy work, much as Liverpool did in winning at United last month, because of the ability of their central midfield trio to take the game to United. Too many opposing sides come merely to stop Ferguson's team playing.

The youthful trio of Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Frank Lampard, all of whom cemented the favourable impression they had already made on the watching Sven Goran Eriksson, posed problems of their own.

For all that, United created far more scoring opportunities without forcing undue heroics from Shaka Hislop, who was carrying a knee injury. The giant goalkeeper was superbly protected by a defence in which Hannu Tihinen, a Finn who is on loan from the Norwegian club Viking Stavanger, achieved the considerable feat of equalling the indomitable Stuart Pearce.

Hislop tipped over one trademark free-kick by David Beckham before half-time and saved with his feet from Andy Cole shortly after the interval, Sheringham blazing the rebound into the Stretford End. Moments earlier, when Sheringham poked the ball towards the net, Tihinen materialised to hack the ball off the line.

Yet if West Ham struggled to suppress Ryan Giggs' dynamic surges, they never buckled. Instead, with Di Canio roving free and Kanouté ploughing a lone furrow up front, they concentrated on establishing ascendancy over Roy Keane and Nicky Butt, or at least containing them. In the second half, at least before scoring, they began toachieve the primary objective.

A measure of their success can be gauged from the fact that United had not lost an FA Cup game at home since Nottingham Forest -- captained by Pearce -- won 1-0 in 1989. In the interim, their only other exit before their own crowd came in '92, when Southampton took a drawn tie on penalties.

Ferguson declined to criticise Barthez afterwards, although it is not hard to imagine his response had Mark Bosnich behaved the same way, which he ascribed to "an element of kidology".

The blame, he argued, had to be accepted by the defenders who tried to play for an offside flag.

"They should know better," he said. "When a player [Kanouté] is on the ball and picking a pass, you drop back."

Having magnanimously praised West Ham's "good, determined performance", the United manager stated that he had "absolutely no complaints".

He then proceeded to reel off several, including the penalties that Mr Durkin had refused United and the state of the playing surface.

Ferguson claimed that the pitch had not recovered from the staging of rugby league's World Cup final there in November, remarking pointedly: "I can't believe the biggest club in the world has to stage rugby matches. You'd think they would learn the lesson. It's an absolute disgrace."

As for Redknapp, the dubious reward of an away tie against a Sunderland side lying second to United could not diminish his satisfaction over his captain's winning flourish. "There's no one I'd like on the ball in front of goal more than Paolo," he purred, without adding, as well he might, his gratitude for Barthez's bizarre role in the outcome.

Manchester United (4-4-2): Barthez; Irwin (Solskjaer, 79), G Neville, Stam, Silvestre; Beckham, Butt (Yorke, 79), Keane, Giggs; Sheringham, A Cole. Substitutes not used: P Neville, Chadwick, Van der Gouw (gk).

West Ham United (3-5-1-1): Hislop; Tihinen; Dailly, S Pearce; Schemmel, Lampard, Carrick, J Cole (I Pearce, 86), Winterburn; Kanouté; Di Canio (Soma, 89). Substitutes not used: Potts, Moncur, Forrest (gk).

Referee: P Durkin (Portland).

Booking: United: Beckham.

Man of the match: Tihinen.