'Treating canaries as though they are barely out of the hatchery risks the discovery that even Tweety Pies have talons. Alternatively, never give a sucker an even break.
Either way Manchester United's attempt to beat Norwich City while keeping the best part of their powder dry for this weekend's FA Cup semi-final against Newcastle United rebounded embarrassingly for Sir Alex Ferguson's team on Saturday.
So much so that doubts about them retaining the trophy are now running neck-and-neck with reservations concerning their ability to pip Arsenal for the second automatic Champions League place in the Premiership.
Perhaps Ferguson was entitled to believe that he could rest Roy Keane, keep Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench and still win at chilly Carrow Road. After all Norwich had lost five matches in succession.
Since the FA Cup again represents Ferguson's sole chance of winning something he was right to rest some of his better players but surely not to the extent of denuding an attack that badly needed to get its act together after a guileless, goalless performance against Blackburn the previous weekend.
Without Keane, omitted in case he got a booking which would rule him out of the semi-finals, to goad them United spent 45 minutes passing the ball sweetly but leaving the Premiership's most porous defence unruffled.
Not only did Ferguson duck the post-match press conference, as is his habit, but he also refused to speak to MUTV, which was akin to Joseph Stalin blanking Pravda. On a noisy evening for Norwich, however, one silent knight was an irrelevance.'