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{ Manchester United fans asking former Basingstoke Town star Sergio Torres for his autograph. Maybe they think it's Fernando. Welcome to live coverage of Manchester United's bye into the quarter finals of the FA Cup. It's United's third easy draw in a row, after a fourth-round tie at third-division Southampton, and a third-round match against a team selected by Roy Hodgson. This time they play Crawley Town of the Blue Square Premier League, and understandably confident of victory, so much so this time that they've picked Bebe.

Having said all this, United did draw 0-0 at Old Trafford with non-league Exeter City in 2005, and Wes Brown was on the pitch that day as well. So you never know. Except we do sort of know.

Manchester United: Lindegaard, Rafael, O'Shea, Brown, Fabio, Gibson, Carrick, Anderson, Bebe, Hernandez, Obertan.
Subs: Rooney, Smalling, Fletcher, Kuszczak, King, Pogba, Tunnicliffe.

Crawley Town: Kuipers, Hunt, Mills, McFadzean, Howell, Gibson, Smith, Bulman, Torres, Tubbs, McAllister.
Subs: Shearer, Rusk, Rents, Wilson, Cook, Napper, Brodie.

Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire)

Kick off: 5.15pm.

The teams are out. Not a peep of that preposterous new anthem featuring Richie. That's got to be good news, yes? United are in their red shirts and white shorts, you knew this, while Crawley are in their white shirts and red shorts. There's nice. There are 9,000 Crawley fans in the crowd, 8,985 more than their usual away support.

And we're off! And it's a really confident start by the away side, McAllister tearing down the left and sending in a cross that skims off the top of Gibson's head. Let's hope that's not them shot their bolt already.

2 min: A couple of corners to United down the right. The first is hacked away by Hunt, the second sees Obertan fly a low ball right across the face of the six-yard box from the right-hand edge of the area. Any touch of that, by either attacker or defender, and we'd have seen the opener. A nice open start, but then did anybody expect anything else?

5 min: No other scares for Crawley yet, though. United are knocking it around at the back a lot, Crawley chasing after shadows. Eventually a long ball's pumped down the inside-left channel, catching Hernandez offside. "By all accounts the best advice to Crawley Town's players is simply to go out there and enjoy themselves," says Gary Naylor, who has scraped himself off the ceiling after Everton's win at Chelsea. "So will they take out some comfy chairs, plenty of beers, get some takeaways delivered to the centre-circle, try out Call of Duty Black Ops, perhaps a few hands of poker, before settling down with some racy DVDs on the wide screen TV towards the end of the evening?" Yes, this is what you've got planned tonight, isn't it? Shamelessly transparent.

8 min: Obertan flies down the left wing, looking extremely dangerous until he knocks the ball a wee bit too far ahead of him. McFadzean is over quickly from a central position to whip the ball off his toe and high into the stands. Great anticipation. "Hope Bebe doesn't embarrass us," writes United fan Gerry Nicholson. "I am very relaxed, so much so that I don't mind if Crawley win (mmm not sure I mean that), the FA Cup should supply some romance. Or Bebe gets a hatrick, ha ha I am in the groove today." A Bebe hat-trick? That's not so much in the groove as being lead trumpeter in the Count Basie Orchestra horn section.

11 min: A fantastic effort by Crawley's Gibson, who volleys towards the top-right corner of the United net from 25 yards out on the left! His dipping effort isn't too far away, either, floating just wide right, though Lindegaard had it covered were it on target.

14 min: Anderson slips Hernandez clear down the inside-right channel, but the striker's offside by inches. That's a slice of luck for Crawley, doubly so because McFadzean was all over Hernandez like a bad suit.

17 min: Crawley are looking to knock it around when they can. Smith, Torres and Gibson ping a couple of pretty triangles near the centre circle, but the cream rises, Carrick gliding in and making off with the ball. Gibson slides in and upends the Manchester United man in unceremonious fashion, and is probably lucky to escape a booking, showing studs as he was.

21 min: Smith, eight yards out, nearly gets his outstretched leg to a long throw from the left. United break through Obertan, but he's eventually harried in midfield and his pass out right to Hernandez removes all momentum from the attack. Crawley will be very pleased with themselves so far. Here's Linda Howard, who was in a wee bit of a hot funk at the state of Everton's stripy socks earlier this afternoon. "I'm still fixated on the darned socks," she begins, quipping furiously. "Crawley's red and white striped ones strike me as very Where's Waldo, which of course would indicate a tendency to disappear in a crowd. Or are they candy canes which means - wait for it - they will get licked? I need to get a life."

24 min: United, on the other hand, won't be particularly pleased. Crawley are getting decent ball time, McAllister in particular enjoying plenty of it. At one point he evades three challenges down the left, albeit heading in the wrong direction. Then he heads goalwards from ten yards, without much power, but still.

26 min: A corner from United's Gibson down the left. He can't clear the first man, for goodness sake, but gets another chance to deliver as the ball's shuttled back to him. This time he knocks in a dangerous ball to the far post, forcing Mills to turn the ball straight behind for another corner. This one's wasted, though there's a sense United have suddenly turned up the gas.

28 min: GOAL!!! Manchester United 1-0- Crawley Town. A beautiful ball from Darron Gibson, down the inside-left channel, frees Hernandez in the area. The striker pauses, the ball clanking between his feet, and allows McFadzean to poke behind for a corner. From which comes the first goal: after a bit of faffing around down the left, Gibson sends an inswinger into the heart of the box, Brown gently flicking the ball on, into the bottom-right corner, keeper Kuipers rooted to the spot. Well done, plucky United!

32 min: Old Trafford is very quiet, despite the breakthrough. "Shall we sing a song for you?" chant the away support. A fair point, made confidently in the knowledge that criticising the single-figure crowd Crawley took to Wrexham recently isn't as easily done via the medium of popular song.

34 min: Darron Gibson has been United's best player by a distance. Now he curls a lovely low pass down the inside-left channel to release Fabio. The full-back really should score, but clumsily flicks an effort well wide left.

37 min: Fabio's barged over in the area by McFadzean, who really is no nonsense. The referee's having none of it. A minute or so later, Fabio scoots down the left, his low cross poked wide by the lunging Hernandez. United are given a corner for free, and waste it.

38 min: Obertan bombs down the left, cuts inside, and belabours a shot straight at Kuipers. It's parried well. Then Darron Gibson has another dig from long range; the keeper's behind that one too.

40 min: Hernandez is caught 20 yards offside. Dear Lord. But he makes up for it a minute later with a lovely figure-of-eight spin down the left, his fizzing cross evading everyone in the middle. The ball breaks on the other side to Gibson, who sends the ball back in for Obertan to miscontrol while six yards out. "I for one think Bebe has done remarkably well for Man United if that picture of him is anything to go by," writes Sean Moore. "Give the lad a break - he's only got one foot, for heaven's sake."

43 min: Run of the match for Crawley by Howell, who zips down the left and sends a decent-ish cross into the centre. If McAllister was nine feet tall, he'd have got a head on that. Has Howell been watching Bebe?

44 min: Crawley are finishing the half strongly. First Torres steals the ball in midfield and feeds Gibson, who has half a chance to shoot from the edge of the United D but hesitates and lays a momentum-extracting pass out to the right. Then Smith isn't far away at all from clipping a reverse ball down the inside-right channel to set Tubbs free. Some nice football there.

HALF TIME: Manchester United 1-0 Crawley Town. Well, Crawley have done pretty well there, you would have to say. They're not out of the cup yet! Well, they sort of are, but you know what I mean.

And we're off again! A change by Manchester United, and one that's very flattering to the non-league side: Anderson is replaced by Wayne Rooney. The home side set the ball rolling again.

46 min: Rooney immediately bales down the right and lumps a cross into the side netting. A statement of intent.

47 min: This has started in end-to-end fashion. A couple of positive sorties by Crawley, Bulman and Smith causing some bother down the left, then a long throw into the box that O'Shea has to deal with using base skills. Then, up the other end, Obertan zips down the left and hits a low cross into the centre. Mills hacks clear before Rooney can get close.

49 min: The ball drops from the sky on the edge of the United area. Smith has time to hit a volley - though not much time, as Brown is right by him to block what looked a goalbound effort.

51 min: Gibson and Hunt combine well down the right, the cross swung in only just evading Tubbs in the centre. Then O'Shea and Tubbs come together in the United box as they chase a ball down the inside-left channel. A lot of cries from the away section, but that's never a penalty.

54 min: Torres steams down the middle of the park but lets the ball run too far ahead of him and clatters into Rafael as he lunges. He's in the book. It's the last act of the day for Rafael - he's not injured, he was going off anyway - as he's replaced by Smalling.

56 min: Fabio shoots from 25 yards, cutting in from the left. Kuipers is well behind it.

57 min: "You're supposed to be at home," crow the Crawley support, baiting an otherwise silent Old Trafford.

59 min: Bebe is still on the pitch, let's remember. Here he hits one of his special crosses, clubbing a dismal effort in the vague direction of the box. Kuipers wanders off his line to claim with no Manchester United player anywhere near.

61 min: Rooney drops a shoulder, 25 yards from goal, nudges the ball to the right and goes for the top-left corner. The effort's miles over the bar. United haven't done very much in the second half so far.

63 min: Richard Brodie, who cost Crawley £300,000, comes on for McAllister.

65 min: The Crawley crowd are really enjoying themselves now. Their team string a five-pass move together. It's not quite Leeds v Southampton from 1972, but the travelling 9,000 don't give a flying one, and start up with the '¡Olé!s. A slightly embarrassed home crowd spark up a chant of "Red army", but you can sense their heart's not really in it today.

69 min: Fabio goes off, Fletcher comes on. Meanwhile Willie Gibson departs, to be replaced by Jamie Cook - an ex-professional golfer.

71 min: Crawley's best move of the match. Tubbs creates space with a brilliant turn down the left. He sends Brodie away along the wing. When the big man reaches the byline, he sends a superb cross into the centre, where Hunt, standing on the penalty spot, steers a poor volley wide left. Finish apart, that was lovely football from the non-leaguers.

74 min: CRAWLEY OPPORTUNITY SPURNED! Cook twists and turns O'Shea down the right. That's very embarrassing for the United defender. He stands the ball up to the far post, where Brodie half-wins a header. The ball flies back into the centre, Tubbs bicycle-kicking over the bar from six yards. For a nanosecond, that looked for all the world like an equaliser. This is all Crawley at the moment!

77 min: FC Barcelona Crawley Town spend the best part of a minute stroking it around in the United half, the home side sitting - or are they being pushed? - back. Eventually Brodie finds space down the right, though his cross is too close to Lindegaard. They're enjoying themselves here.

78 min: A free kick for Crawley, 25 yards out on the right. Howell is charged with taking a potshot at goal, but sends his big chance of glory high into the stand behind. He even slips over as he kicks, sliding along the turf on his buttocks, a student of the John Terry school of dead-ball striking. Oh dear.

81 min: One last change for Crawley, Simon Rusk for Ben Smith. "This United performance is the equivalent of petrol station flowers on Valentine's Day," writes Niall Mullen, at the end of what may have been a bad week for him. "Just doing the bare minimum to get through a day of forced and ersatz romance."

83 min: Brown suffers the humiliation of slipping over with the ball at his feet, then being forced to handle the ball as he's on the floor, Brodie lurking with a view to running off towards goal. He's booked for his trouble. Tubbs hits the free kick like a thunderbolt, nearly 30 yards out, but can't keep it down. The ball's still rising.

85 min: United can hardly get hold of the ball here! I'd be interested to see the possession stats for the last 20 minutes or so.

86 min: Bebe breaks free down the inside-right channel and into the area. He rounds Kuipers on the outside, but misses the empty net, rolling the ball wide left. Luckily for everyone concerned, he was miles offside anyway.

88 min: Rooney is booked for a thoroughly frustrated shove in the small of McFadzean's back, one that sends the big defender tumbling.

90 min: There will be four added minutes of this.

90 min +2: CRAWLEY HIT THE BAR!!! Cook tears down the left. Smalling blocks the ball out for a throw. From the long throw, a McFadzean prod is deflected out for a corner. And from that, sent in from the left, Brodie loops a slow-motion header onto the bar from six yards with Lindegaard flapping! What a finish! The striker's shoulders fall, he knows what a chance has been spurned there.

90 min +3: Hunt curls a deep cross into the United area from the right. McFadzean gets his head on it, 12 yards out, but the effort is well high and wide right.

FULL TIME: Manchester United 1-0 Crawley Town. Well, United are through, but look at that scoreline. Everyone's happy, sort of, to some extent at least, except Steve Evans, who is dancing up and down the touchline in the hottest of funks, pointing at his watch. Who's he picked that up from?

Agences de presses

Labels: Crawley, Guardian, Manchester, United