THE INDIE
Sir Alex Ferguson described this afterwards as Manchester United's "most difficult game of the season". With three minutes remaining, it seemed United had escaped with a 1-1 draw, rather than the defeat they deserved against a Fulham side that stifled them at crucial stages.
Then Cristiano Ronaldo collected the ball inside his own half. Quick thinking helped him evade Clint Dempsey and a burst of acceleration left Moritz Volz trailing. Approaching the 18-yard box, Ronaldo's graceful swerve confused the back-tracking Philippe Christanval, meaning that the Portugal winger's subsequent strike deflected in off the disorientated defender.
The goal's effect on United's morale was cathartic. Ronaldo and team-mates charged towards a delirious dugout. They knew that it is moments such as these that decide the destiny of league titles.
"When the ball hit the back of the net, it was a fantastic feeling," said Ronaldo. "We know how important the goal was - myself, my team-mates, the coaches and the fans. After the Champions League, we were a bit tired. We knew this game was so important." Edwin Van der Sar had kept United in the game before Ronaldo's winner, with several outstanding saves. "These are the games that decide if you are going to be champions," said Van der Sar. "Chelsea will have been focused on their game against Arsenal but I know for sure they will have watched this game and it's a statement to them that we are determined not to let it slip."
It could be argued that, rather than Ronaldo or Van der Sar, it was Ferguson who won this game with two tactical decisions while it was 1-1. In the 66th minute, he replaced the ineffective Michael Carrick with Louis Saha. Wayne Rooney dropped back to left-midfield and Ryan Giggs was moved across into the centre. That meant all of United's most attack-minded players were fielded at the same time.
This was not desperate all-out attacking, though. Ferguson was cool-headed enough to see that Rooney was failing to outmanoeuvre Volz in the new system and responded by moving Ronaldo to the left. After 88 minutes, Ferguson's prescience paid off.
THE GUARDIAN
Championships are not won until the frontrunners are out of reach but there are moments when the prospect of anyone catching them no longer seems a practical possibility. One of these occurred beside the Thames on Saturday when in the 88th minute Cristiano Ronaldo outpaced two Fulham players on the left before cutting in to secure an unlikely victory for Manchester United and extend their lead over Chelsea at the top of the Premiership to nine points.
Chelsea have a match in hand and United not only have to go to Stamford Bridge in April but are also at Liverpool this weekend. Yet even with such a strong advantage, Sir Alex Ferguson's team could lose both these fixtures and still have enough in hand to take the title to Old Trafford for the first time in four seasons.
Certainly the rejoicing on the visitors' bench as Ronaldo's goal went in suggested that this was a win of considerable significance, achieved as it was after United had been outpaced, out-tackled and outmanoeuvred by a Fulham side who showed touches of genuine class after spending much of the season below the salt in the Premiership table.
Ferguson was asked if Ronaldo's winner could be compared in importance to the two late goals scored by Steve Bruce in the spring of 1993 enabling United to beat Sheffield Wednesday, who had gone ahead through John Sheridan's penalty, and regain the leadership from Aston Villa on their way to the title. Understandably he hesitated. After all, that was the first of his eight Premiership successes with United and the first time Old Trafford had seen the league title for 26 years.
Suffice to say that, while Manchester United were well below par at Craven Cottage, their victory still managed to keep faith with the attacking traditions ingrained in the team during the years under Matt Busby. Ferguson's response to the way Fulham dominated the match was to reorganise his side, not to cling on for the draw but to keep alive hopes of a win. That is why Ronaldo ended up on the left wing, having enjoyed limited success on the right.
Ronaldo's goal apart, the two men who did more than most to keep United in Saturday's contest were Edwin van der Sar and Ryan Giggs, the one link with the 1993 match. Van der Sar began hesitantly and it was his mix-up with Nemanja Vidic that enabled Brian McBride to put Fulham ahead from a narrow angle after 17 minutes. But from then on the United goalkeeper thwarted Fulham with several sharp saves, the best of them to turn a shot from Simon Davies round a post at the start of the second half.
Giggs wore the captain's armband in the absence of Gary Neville, who was left out for tactical reasons, it was said, in case anyone thought he was being disciplined for telling Ferguson where to go during that touchline fracas in Lens. Either way Giggs was inspired as he sought to break Fulham's grip on the midfield and in particular Michael Brown's shackling of Paul Scholes, with tireless running and a quality of vision that saw United draw level on the half-hour. Having released Wayne Rooney on the left, Giggs sprinted past the defence on the right to meet a dipping centre and beat Jan Lastuvka with a cross-shot off the outside of his left foot.
THE TELEGRAPH
This was football the way it used to be: a cavalcade of action and shots. In a contest as thrilling as any I can recall in recent years, Fulham outplayed slightly off-colour Manchester United, who won thanks only to a moment of exhilarating individualism by Cristiano Ronaldo, two minutes from time.
Is Swansea's Chris Coleman a better coach than Govan Godfather Alex Ferguson? On this auspicious day for Fulham, you might be tempted to say so. If Ferguson's late tactical intervention was incisive - sending out Louis Saha to give United five all-out attackers, then switching Ronaldo to the left - Coleman's organisation on this day, lifting David's supposedly inferior forces level with and often above Goliath, was the stuff of dreams.
United may have stretched their Premiership lead over Chelsea to nine points, but they required isolated moments of multi-million pound-rated genius to do so. Injustice was seldom more cruel. Five times in the second half Fulham, playing with venom and intelligence, had come close to restoring their first-half lead, including a header by Tomasz Radzinski that leapt back off the crossbar in the 51st minute. Most galling for Fulham was the referee ignoring a seemingly blatant penalty when goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar flattened substitute Heidar Helguson in the crescendo of the closing minutes.
Not since 1964 and the Busby days of the inimitable Paddy Crerand had United fallen on the banks of the Thames, but for more than a dazzling hour it seemed likely to be repeated. Coleman's first words were, "I'm very proud of my players", and so indeed was every home spectator, relishing the sight of Michael Brown, their terrier of a captain, gaining an edge in his fascinating 90-minute duel with the more famous Paul Scholes.
There is about Brown an element of Crerand's erstwhile colleague, Nobby Stiles - only marginally less confrontational, an inspiration to his team, and more adroit in his use of the ball. What a transformation from last week's trampling by Tottenham in the FA Cup, when Brown was absent. His booking on Saturday was for dissent when the culprit in that instant was Wayne Rooney - just one of a compendium of errors by a well-intentioned but inadequate referee, Peter Walton, the worst being the crucial penalty incident.
With Fulham desperate to retrieve the one point that should have been three, a massed final assault on United's penalty area saw Van der Sar flinging himself across Helguson's body with no intent for the ball. An exasperated Coleman said: "I don't know the reason why we didn't get it. The referee was in a perfect position - for the only time - but lost his nerve, which he did all afternoon.
"It wasn't United's fault. No matter where they go, everyone wants to beat them and raises their own game. We did. It was a good game of football, with physical challenge given and accepted. We didn't want Rio Ferdinand off for raising his hands [in a scuffle with Radzinski just before half time], you only expect that for serious stuff."
THE TIMES
Chris Coleman suggested that José Mourinho "will be letting my tyres down now". If the Chelsea manager is bristling, it will not be because Fulham failed to grasp the victory that their performance deserved but because events at Craven Cottage underlined why the Barclays Premiership title is on its way to the North West.
This was a difficult match for United. They were feeling the physical and emotional strains of the controversial victory over Lille in the Champions League on Tuesday - but still they took three points. They faced a Fulham team who lifted their game to a degree that no other side in the bottom half of the table would be capable of, but still United won. The celebrations in the visiting team's camp at the end will only be more heartfelt when the players are doing a celebratory jig around the Premiership trophy.
"These are the games that decide if you are going to be champions or let Chelsea back in," Edwin van der Sar, the United goalkeeper, said. Sir Alex Ferguson called the match "the most difficult game we've had all season".
Frank Rijkaard, the Barcelona coach, was lampooned last week for throwing on forward after forward against Liverpool at the Nou Camp as his team slipped to defeat in the Champions League, but that was because his tactic failed. Ferguson did the same on Saturday and was held in general awe because his team snatched the win.
"I wouldn't have been happy with a point at any stage," the United manager said. "I wanted all our goalscorers to be on the pitch."
Even so, it always looked as if it would be Cristiano Ronaldo who would make the difference. The Portugal winger was as lively at the death as he had been at the start and in the 88th minute he brushed off a couple of ineffectual challenges to give United victory.
It was the only juncture at which Fulham appeared second-rate and Clint Dempsey, the American brought in by Coleman last month, reacted so slowly as Ronaldo skipped past him that you had to wonder if he had done his homework on the stars of the Premiership.