SIR ALEX FERGUSON was all smiles and bonhomie when he performed the official opening of Burton Albion’s Pirelli Stadium in November, marvelling at the impressive facility that the Nationwide Conference club had created. However, for the multimillionaire Manchester United players who will put their reputations on the line tomorrow afternoon, when they run on to a sandpit of a pitch, it will hardly represent a field of dreams.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is an exception, given that he is in contention to start a game for the first time since May 2004, but even he might be forgiven for looking at the playing surface and asking whether, after more than 18 months out with a career-threatening knee injury, he would be better suited to the familiar role of super-sub.

It will also represent a comedown to the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, a twinkle-toed winger who might have been spared a trip to deepest Staffordshire had he performed consistently over the past few months.

But Ferguson believes that it will do his players some good to get back to what would be called grass-roots level if only the green stuff could be seen amid the 50 tonnes of sand that were poured on to the pitch on Thursday in an attempt to make the surface playable after a drainage problem.

“The pitch wasn’t too great six or seven weeks ago,” Ferguson said at United’s training ground yesterday. “I’ve read about them putting sand on it. Whether that’s to help with the frost I don’t know, but they’re covering the pitch, so it’s obvious they’re keen to get the game on.

“A few of them who played there [in the friendly in November, which Burton won 2-1] will be involved again, the likes of Phil Bardsley and Giuseppe Rossi, and also Tim Howard, Wes Brown, Mikaël Silvestre, Alan Smith, Park Ji Sung, Cristiano Ronaldo, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

“You enjoy these occasions if you get through because you realise how hard you work to get through. The experience of going to a small ground is a good one. Some of the players won’t have done this before.

“Maybe it’s a nice reminder to our players of where they’ve come from, going to smaller grounds and getting changed in parks as young players coming through the ranks. It can do them good.”

Abject performances in a 0-0 draw with Exeter City at Old Trafford at the same stage a year ago, by contrast, signalled the end of the United careers of Eric Djemba-Djemba and David Bellion, since sold to Aston Villa and loaned to West Ham United respectively, and perhaps also of Liam Miller, who is on loan at Leeds United. Rarely, if ever, had Ferguson taken an FA Cup match so lightly, but he resents accusations that he was guilty of devaluing a competition that he has won five times as a manager.

“I think we played too many young players in the first game against Exeter,” he said. “The problem then was that some of them hadn’t played for three weeks. In a way I was delighted for Exeter. Those two matches have probably helped them keep afloat for years.

“They will think it was the best thing that could have happened to them. But Manchester United have had more success in the FA Cup than any other club in the country. It’s special to the club.”

Given that United are already out of the Champions League, and 13 points adrift of Chelsea in the Barclays Premiership, the FA Cup could be said to be as important to Ferguson as it was in 1990, when the fortunes of his faltering regime were transformed by a 1-0 victory away to Nottingham Forest in the third round.

Nigel Clough, the Burton manager, was in the Forest team that day; Ferguson might not be a great believer in superstitions or omens, but the parallel will not have escaped him.