West Ham United (0) 0 Manchester United (0) 0

THIS, said Dwight Yorke, was the stage he had always craved. Yet all he
performed for Manchester United's followers was a recurrent disappearing
act.

His fortunes did improve slightly in the 21 minutes after Teddy
Sheringham
had replaced Andy Cole. But by and large Yorke can only get better.
And, to
be fair, he can only get better support and encouragement than his new
colleagues provided on a day of deadlock that told us next to nothing.

West Ham, whose optimism has been soaring like pretty bubbles, should
have
won and did not. A dead-leg suffered by Ian Wright in training that
kept the
former Arsenal striker out cannot have helped a club still searching for
their first Premiership victory over the Mancunians after their 11th
attempt.

Alex Ferguson's team were solid enough at the back but manifested
sustained
aggression only towards the end, when Yorke had his solitary chance and
Sheringham headed over from a cross by the predictably abused David
Beckham.

Sportswriters will continue to reserve the right to hound Beckham over
his
petulant and profligate behaviour in St Etienne (with every
justification,
and the hope of thereby reducing the prospects of a repetition), so why
should the fans of Manchester United's opponents not have the same
privilege? They pay for it, after all.

On the other hand, as several West Ham players took care to point out
in the
build-up to this match, an excess of taunting from the crowd can be
counter-productive and Beckham has considerable experience of making
detractors, especially those of his native metropolis, choke on their
bile;
some of his finest goals have been scored in London.

Nor, it may be recalled, was former West Ham player Paul Ince
diminished by
the fury that greeted him here on his first visit in United red.
Players of
calibre tend, indeed, to be stimulated by derision.

Although it still cannot have been much fun for Beckham to have his
every
touch booed, he was not obviously distressed by the peripheral aspects
of
the occasion and was one of United's more constructive contributors to a
rather disappointing first half in which the West Ham defence, with Rio
Ferdinand sweeping as usual, generally kept Yorke and Cole under firm
control.

At least Beckham, in common with Ryan Giggs and the rest of United's
exceptional generation of young home-produced players, never had to cope
with the greater stress of coming to the club from outside and having to
adjust to Old Trafford's special, traditional demands.

At one time strikers - Alan Brazil, Garry Birtles, Peter Davenport -
seemed
to come and go through a revolving door. But Alex Ferguson's faith in
Cole
was rewarded last season with 15 League goals and five in Europe. The
test
now awaits Yorke.

Here the new subject of United's record outlay lined up for his first
appearance alongside his precursor, Cole, with Giggs on the left flank.
It
might have been a more profitable opening period for them had the
referee
and relevant linesman agreed with them (and many neutrals) that Neil
Ruddock
had handled in the third minute. As Cole lurked behind him, the defender
seemed to panic and thrust up an arm to divert a cross from Giggs, whom
Beckham had served. West Ham sighed with relief.

During the summer Harry Red- knapp used about a third of the £12.6
million
Ferguson required to land Yorke in adding five players to the Upton Park
squad who finished eighth last season. There had been good and bad news
for
the hungry audience in that while Ian Wright, after scoring the winner
on
his debut at Sheffield last weekend, was unfit, John Hartson had
sufficiently recovered from ankle trouble to return.

Back from suspension, Hartson wasted little time in sullying his clean
disciplinary sheet, lunging late at Gary Neville; first minute, first
yellow
card of the season. But it took some excellent defending to deny the
Welshman afterwards, first by Roy Keane, who blocked a drive after
Hartson
had used his power in the air, then Henning Berg, who prevented him from
having the clear sight of goal promised by Andrew Impey's superb
throughball.

These flurries apart, West Ham seldom threatened. They produced the odd
neat
move, in which the steady Steve Lomas was usually involved, and from one
Eyal Berkovic's clever pass towards the byline which gave Trevor
Sinclair an
opportunity, but the angle tied him in mental knots; his drive across
the
face of Peter Schmeichel's goal was neither shot nor cross. Yet somehow
the
home side contrived still to be more dangerous than United.

Yorke took nearly half an hour to catch the eye, and that was with no
more
than a simple prompt from Denis Irwin, whose cross Beckham met on the
volley, only to find an elevated destination in the Bobby Moore Stand.

After Berkovic had wasted an opportunity, Ferdinand's majestic long pass
released Sinclair and Schmeichel did extremely well to advance and save.

But that, midway through the second half, was just about the last we
saw of
West Ham as an attacking force. Ferguson's side took the initiative.
From a
break by Giggs, the ball came to Yorke. In concentrating on direction,
he
got no conviction into his shot, which Neil Ruddock stopped.

There was no need for the home goalkeeper, Shaka Hislop, a hero by all
accounts at Hillsborough, to demonstrate his skill this time.