IT WAS not pretty, nor did it bode especially well for Manchester United’s future, but what was in effect Sir Alex Ferguson’s third team edged past his son Darren’s Peterborough United yesterday. More importantly for Manchester United and England, Owen Hargreaves jogged through 45 second-half minutes and emerged unscathed.

From 12.30pm hundreds of fans had stationed themselves in the sun outside the main entrance of Peterborough United’s trim stadium.

In an irony only their commercial manager would understand, on a day that attracted an attendance three times greater than the usual squadron of diehards who follow their team’s attempt to escape the Football League’s basement, the throng barred the way of customers at the club shop.

At 2.28pm, with the kick-off already delayed by 20 minutes, Manchester United finally arrived, but as the coach disgorged its cargo, those children with their replica Rooney and Ronaldo shirts would have been disappointed once they had noted only Owen Hargreaves, who began yesterday on the bench, and perhaps occasional first-teamer Gerard Pique, for this was not Manchester United, but a Manchester United XI.

Tom Heaton, Danny Simpson, Michael Lea and Ferguson’s most-favoured of the inchoate bunch, Darron Gibson, passed by unknown by name but screamed at all the same. For Peterborough, who fielded their strongest available lineup, this was an opportunity for a tilt at the windmills of fleeting glory before Rochdale arrive on Saturday.

For United’s pampered youngsters, if a large crowd and that screaming was a possible shape of things to come, the cramped ground, the basic facilities and the unremitting toil against honest journeymen was a warning of what might happen if careers do not go to plan and the youths do not graduate from an academy for which the production line that produced the Nevilles, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Paul Scholes in the 1980s and 90s seems a distant memory.

There was more to titillate. A gentle preseason friendly the day before Manchester United face Chelsea in the Community Shield was hardly a time for a true peek into the future or for the settling of familial scores.

But it marked the moment Darren and Sir Alex Ferguson first pitted their managerial wits against each other. Throughout the match, Ferguson Jnr stood in his technical area, arms folded. Not one to steal the limelight from his scion, Ferguson Snr kept a lower profile.

Mimicking their superiors, Manchester United were deployed in a liquid 4-4-2 formation that allowed the wingers Richie Jones and Lee Martin to support the strikeforce of Fangzhuo Dong and the eager Frazer Campbell.

Perhaps nervous at being watched by Sir Alex himself, the young aristocrats looked nervy and were initially discombobulated by their tenacious hosts, with the experienced Dean Keates at pocket battleship stations and the youthful strikeforce of George Boyd and Aaron McLean offered Jonny Evans and Ryan Shawcross a reasonably testing afternoon until the 23rd minute, when full-back Adam Eckersley charged through on the left side and ratcheted a cross-shot past Shwan Jalal.

To the delight of those seeking a smidgen of glamour, Hargreaves appeared for the second half to anchor the visitors’ midfield left side and make his United debut. Shadowed by the limpet-like Charlie Lee, he moved tentatively, but Peterborough began to move more fluidly; 49 minutes in, they were level when Rene Howe pirouetted around Phil Bardsley to shoot hard and under Heaton.

There might have been more from Boyd and Danny Crow, and when the good-natured crowd chanted, “Fergie give us a wave”, neither manager knew whether to respond.

Shortly after, Jonny Evans hobbled off and Ferguson Snr was standing in his own tactical area, far from pleased with his young charges. The knightly aura (and finger-pointing) worked for his team, who regained the lead when Jones blasted home Martin’s corner. Dong added the third when a glorious moment of ball-juggling grounded two centre-halves before he gleefully blasted past Mark Tyler. After that there was only time for Hargreaves to wince as Lee scythed him down and then smile as he trotted away unharmed.

Star man: Richie Jones(Manchester United)

Peterborough United:Jalal (Tyler, ht), Low (Potter, 68min), Blackett (Newton, ht), Morgan (Branston, 68min), Westwood (Charnock, ht), Hyde (Strachan 60min), Keates (Lee, 60min), Day (Smith, 68min), Whelpdale (Crow, 60min), McLean (Howe, ht), Boyd (Gain, 60min)

Manchester United:Heaton, Simpson, Eckersley, Shawcross (Bardsley, ht), J Evans (S Evans, 70min), Pique (Hargreaves, ht), Jones, Gibson (Lea, ht), Campbell, Dong, Martin

Scorers: Peterborough United:Howe 49 Manchester United:Eckersley 23, Jones 72, Dong 82

Referee:A D’Urso