PAUL FAIRCLOUGH, the Barnet manager, reasoned that there are times when a little “heart and soul” would not go amiss in the game, but as Sir Alex Ferguson will no doubt testify, football can be an uncompromising game, and at Old Trafford last night the Coca-Cola League Two strugglers discovered just that after one of the cruellest incidents in recent memory, if not the history of the League Cup.

Barnet’s first meeting with Manchester United should have been an experience to savour, but it was as good as over almost as soon as the whistle sounded. The natives were still taking to their seats when, with barely 90 seconds on the clock, Ross Flitney, Barnet’s 21-year-old goalkeeper, raced out to collect Phil Bardsley’s long punt and inexplicably handled outside his penalty area.

It was a moment of madness, but there were still audible gasps when Richard Beeby, the referee, brandished a red card. Law 12 of the Fifa rules governing Fouls and Misconduct states that a player should be sent off when he “denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball”.

It was seriously debatable, however, whether Flitney had denied United an “obvious” chance, as Kieran Richardson was trailing Ismail Yakubu, the Barnet defender, by some distance when the incident happened and a sympathetic Old Trafford gave the former Fulham trainee a standing ovation as he trudged off the field.

Unfortunately for Barnet, their luck would go from bad to worse. Scott Tynan replaced the unfortunate Louie Soares, but the visiting team’s reserve goalkeeper was powerless to prevent Liam Miller’s resulting free kick from sailing into the top corner. Talk about rubbing salt into fresh wounds.

It was always asking the impossible for a team 85 places below United in the football pyramid to mount a comeback and despite a 76th-minute consolation strike from Dean Sinclair, the Barclays Premiership side ran out 4-1 winners, Richardson, the outstanding Giuseppe Rossi and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake claiming the other goals.

Fairclough was indignant and revealed how Edwin van der Sar, the United goalkeeper, had wandered into the visiting team’s dressing-room at half-time in an attempt to console his “distraught” former Fulham team-mate, and Ferguson admitted that the decision had been “very, very harsh”.

“You would think that a little common sense at that stage of the game would not have gone amiss,” Fairclough said. “The decision has ruined two people’s nights, Louie’s and Ross’s. It was a very cruel decision.”

Having conceded earlier in the day that there is almost “no point” trying to sign a player that Chelsea show an interest in, Ferguson is focusing on investing heavily in youth and, true to his word, he made ten changes to the team that drew 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday. Given the events of the first 90 seconds, however, the United manager could probably have fielded 11 14-year-olds and still expected to win, although the victory was tainted when a group of whistling anti-Glazer protests caused a scene late on. Two fans were detained by Greater Manchester Police last night after a 40-strong mob tried to invade the pitch with banners declaring their upset at Glazer.

Richardson’s inswinging free kick, intended as a cross, had eluded everybody before nestling into the bottom-left corner to double the lead in the nineteenth minute, before Rossi had a header cleared off the line by Adam Gross.

It was not long before Rossi got the goal that his efforts warranted, rifling in Lee Martin’s whipped cross from 18 yards. Sinclair pulled one back for the visiting team after rounding Tim Howard, before Ebanks-Blake grabbed United’s fourth with an easy finish.

It was a wholly unforgettable evening for the London club, for many reasons.

MANCHESTER UNITED (4-4-2): T Howard — P Bardsley, G Pique, W Brown, A Eckersley — L Martin (sub: D Gibson, 75min), L Miller, R Jones, K Richardson — S Ebanks-Blake, G Rossi. Substitutes not used: Park Ji Sung, A Smith, M Silvestre, L Steele. Booked: Miller, Jones, Eckersley.

BARNET (4-4-2): R Flitney — I Hendon, I Yakubu, S King, A Gross — L Soares (sub: S Tynan, 3), D Sinclair, D Lee (sub: D Batt, 87), N Bailey — B Strevens, G Grazioli (sub: L Hatch, 75). Substitutes not used: A Charles, R Graham. Booked: Yakubu. Sent off: Flitney.

Referee: R Beeby.