Indeed, 10 top-flight clubs sent scouts to watch the powerful Wimbledon midfielder recently as he ran the show against a seasoned West Bromwich Albion side. Two Premiership clubs last week bid for Nigel Reo-Coker This week it could be two more, or three or four. Ferguson, who took his squad off to Dubai last night for some warm-weather training, probably shared the sentiment. But Northampton Town, United's FA Cup opponents a week today, will be dreaming even more wondrous dreams all week.Wolves 1 Manchester United 0 Miller 67Half-time: 0-0 Attendance: 29,396. The Dutchman set up Scholes to force a first fine save from Oakes, who produced his second to deny Bellion and, just before the long agonies of added time, a third from Van Nistelrooy's sharp turn and shot.After the last whistle, the announcer repeated the final score every 30 seconds as he if he could not quite believe it.

The young Scot, ineffectual until that moment, kept his head to beat Howard for his third goal of the week, but first-ever in the Premiership.Diego Forlan and David Bellion arrived to assist Van Nistelrooy, who appears to be suffering in the nervous nineties as he attempts to become the fastest scorer of 100 goals in the Premier League era. Twenty-two minutes into the second half, he slipped as Miller latched on to Denis Irwin's forward header and ran at him. Four minutes into the second half, Ince drove a 20-yard shot against the post, at which point Ferguson sent on Wes Brown for his hobbling centre-half, whose next appearance will depend on three wise men of the appeals tribunal.Brown, recently recovered from injury, would unwittingly play a decisive part in one of the season's most dramatic moments to date. After having his free-kick held and a scuffed shot deflected wide, he whipped in a corner that Van Nistelrooy could not keep down, heading too high from barely a yard out.Wolves, however, had finally begun to test Tim Howard, partly because Ferdinand seemed to be suffering the effect of a knock collected when challenging Miller in the 13th minute.

The referee, Andy D'Urso, having booked Butler early on for a foul on Van Nistelrooy, could reasonably have awarded a penalty on the half-hour as Oakes, who had failed to gather Mark Kennedy's skied miskick, clattered into Fletcher's legs.There was more incident in the final five minutes of the half than the previous 40, mostly featuring the unpredictable Ronaldo. The injured Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville were not missed initially as Scholes and Roy Keane drove them forward. We played some excellent football but were wasteful with our chances. We made a mistake and paid for it, and once Wolves scored, they were very hard to break down."Few of those chances were clear-cut, which did not seem to matter much in the early stages, so confident were the champions in their passing and movement. But whatever his opposite number was feeling inside, he declined to express any anger publicly, claiming after United's second successive game without scoring: "I didn't think it was a poor performance. "We knew they'd have the ball for long spells and we'd have to work and chase That's what we did It's a massive boost for everyone associated with the club.

What we've got to do now is push on, starting on Wednesday against Liverpool."Jones admitted he was "dreading" having a drink with Sir Alex Ferguson. The plan had been to stop the visitors playing through the middle, forcing them out wide, where Cristiano Ronaldo and Darren Fletcher were ineffective, thus repeating last September's performance at Old Trafford. This time it worked a treat."You sometimes earn what you fight for," said Jones, who once saved Southampton from relegation after they had been in a worse predicament than his present team's. On that occasion, sitting tight and breaking would have brought a point but for some wasteful finishing by the Premiership's supposed whipping-boys. Paul Ince hit a post, Rio Ferdinand was forced off with a shin injury to start his suspension and the young Scottish striker Kenny Miller emerged from a nightmare of a performance to steal a famous goal.Michael Oakes, who might have conceded an early penalty, became a hero between the posts; Ruud van Nistelrooy's quest for 100 United goals was snuffed out by the uncelebrated Paul Butler and Jody Craddock; Alex Rae subdued United's best player, Paul Scholes.