PAUL INCE WAS NOT RISKING A ROW with anyone at Manchester United when he asserted that the 1993-94 team, with him guv’noring the midfield, was Sir Alex Ferguson’s finest at Old Trafford. It was, and a thrashing from the latest model was no reason for the ageing warhorse to retract or eat humble pie.

The present version remains some way short of greatness and one suspects it will for as long as the central midfield remains such a quandary. From Bryan Robson to Ince to Roy Keane, that crucial area has always been dominated by figures of stature. In recent months, it appears to have been filled with whoever is available and, after the conversion of Alan Smith from striker to holding player, yesterday threw up the remarkable experiment of playing Wayne Rooney alongside Rio Ferdinand.

No lack of stature or talent there, it must be conceded, and they made light work of the Wolverhampton Wanderers trio lined up against them. It said everything that Ince was their best player given that, at 38, any forward foray required leave of absence for the next five minutes. Mark Kennedy and Darren Anderton were bypassed, the latter so anonymous that it took a Tannoy announcement to reveal that he had been withdrawn at half-time.

Ferdinand and Rooney were free to enjoy themselves, but whether this was a glimpse into the future or a high-class way of muddling through will, for now, have to remain between Ferguson and his tactics board. It is not the first time in recent weeks that Ferdinand has been deployed in central midfield but his manager once again sought to play down the idea that this was a long-term strategy.

“I was forced into it,” Ferguson said, referring to his need to rest Darren Fletcher and Smith as well as injuries to Paul Scholes and John O’Shea. On that basis it is anyone’s guess as to who will line up against Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday night.

Ince claimed that Ferdinand’s success as a holding midfield player yesterday could have implications for Sven-Göran Eriksson but the Swede, wrapped up against the cold at Molineux, is unlikely to have torn up his World Cup plans on the back of one hour of evidence against weak Coca-Cola Championship opposition in the FA Cup fourth round. Rooney and Ferdinand lasted a pleasing hour together before the latter dropped back into central defence alongside Nemanja Vidic. The Serbian’s full debut was most notable for a blatant bodycheck on Kenny Miller. It was not pretty but, given how airy-fairy his other stoppers can be, Ferguson was probably relieved to see an old-fashioned centre half adept in his profession’s dark arts.

That was one of a couple of scares for United, including a terrible miss by Carl Cort, but United’s advance to the next round could be safely predicted when Kieran Richardson struck as soon as the fifth minute after Louis Saha had dashed past Lee Naylor. Their progress could be taken for granted when the France striker scored shortly before half-time after running on to Vidic’s ball out of defence. “The second killed it off,” Glenn Hoddle, the Wolves manager, said. “It was a long ball over the top and that is just poor defending.”

His only consolation was that his team’s priority lay in reaching the play-offs, but there was not much about their performance yesterday to suggest that they are ready to go up.

The full backs were regularly embarrassed by Richardson and Park Ji Sung and it was the Korean’s perseverance that brought Richardson his second goal seven minutes after half-time. The England winger impressed beyond his two strikes although he still has a tendency to be selfish around the penalty box.

United continue to advance on the two domestic cups and Ferguson could be pleased with a week that, aside from the knockout successes, yielded a Premiership victory over Liverpool. The signing of Vidic and the return to fitness of Saha have increased his options.

Rooney’s form is so wonderful that, even in central midfield yesterday, it was almost inevitable that he would be one of United’s best players, but it still amounted to a makeshift pairing with Ferdinand — albeit one that cost £57 million to assemble and would be the envy of just about everyone else in today’s fifth-round draw.

Wolverhampton Wanderers (4-5-1): S Postma — R Edwards, J Lescott, G Gyepes, L Naylor — Seol Ki Hyeon (sub: M Davies, 46min), D Anderton (sub: C Cameron, 46), P Ince, M Kennedy, K Miller — C Cort (sub: T Frankowski, 64). Substitutes not used: J Craddock, I Ganea

Manchester United (4-4-2): E van der Sar — G Neville, N Vidic, W Brown (sub: A Smith, 57), M Silvestre — Park Ji Sung, R Ferdinand, W Rooney, K Richardson (sub: P Evra, 64) — R van Nistlelrooy, L Saha (sub: D Fletcher, 64). Substitutes not used: T Howard, P Bardsley. Booked: Vidic, Neville

Referee: U Rennie