An understrength Manchester United side scraped past non-league Crawley Town thanks to a 26th minute goal for stand-in captain Wes Brown.
Sir Alex Ferguson will take little out of the game, although he will be satisfied that his side avoided an upset that would have gone down in FA Cup History.
United started the game with the likes of Wayne Rooney, Nani and Dimitar Berbatov all sitting out. However their fans would have expected Internationals such as in-form Javier Hernandez and Brazilian playmaker Anderson to pose more of a threat to the team 93 league places below them.
It was Crawley, however, that rose to the occasion a lot better than their opponents. They started the game well, and manager Steve Evans will take pride from the fact that his side were not awed by the occasion.
In what was quite possibly the only time in the match that United's class was evident, they went ahead. A fine inswinging cross from Darren Gibson was met inch-perfectly by Wes Brown, who's flick took the ball past the stranded Crawley goalkeeper.
Although Crawley continued to get their teeth stuck into United, their only real chance came on 76 minutes when striker Matt Tubbs went for an overhead kick which was unlucky not to hit the target.
United were unimpressive to say the least, and, even with the introduction of Wayne Rooney at half time, they were unable to go on and put the game to bed.
Steve Evans and his men can take a lot of pride back to Crawley Town with them, which may give them a welcome boost in their quest for promotion.
So despite Crawley's grit and determination, there was no upset so it is, as expected, United's name to go into the hat for the Quarter Final draw.
Matt Dawe
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