Manchester United had just conceded a Premiership goal at home for the first time since November 1st and impatient supporters were leaving in droves. As they descended the steps of Old Trafford Alex Ferguson must have considered such ingratitude an insult.

United are still four points clear in the Premiership, despite this defeat courtesy of Tony Cottee's single strike, and their A and B teams and their reserve team may still win their leagues for a second successive year.

On Saturday afternoon, however, Ferguson looked concerned. He knows that on form his players will still surge to a fifth Premiership in six years, but he also knows that this defeat, following those at Coventry and Southampton, gives others hope and a clue of how to play against them.

Leicester's manager, Martin O'Neill may have been listening to Jan Sorensen, whose Walsall side had lost gloriously in Manchester the previous Saturday. You don't go to places like Old Trafford to dig trenches and defend, was Sorensen's dictum, you go to "play". And, certainly for the first half on Saturday afternoon, Leicester "played". How well Neil Lennon passed the ball, how well Matt Elliott tackled, how well Leicester set the agenda. Unlike so many teams who arrive at the home of the champions with damage limitation uppermost in their thoughts, Leicester came to make a game of it.

This was a welcome surprise, it has to be said - Leicester are known more for their durability than their enterprise. Yet from the third minute, when Emile Heskey's pace and power did for Gary Pallister, it was apparent this was not going to be the attritional affair people predicted.

By the 23rd minute, when the superbly balanced Muzzy Izzet took control of the ball halfway inside United's half, it was the home side with nine men strung out along an Old Trafford 18-yard line.

The stadium, so often smugly still as it awaits another slaughter, was silent with awe. There was relief when United won a corner, but nothing came of it and Leicester went straight back up to the other end and scored.

Robbie Savage supplied Garry Parker and his speculative, spinning chip was badly misjudged by Henning Berg but not by Cottee.

At this point Leicester, with their "work ethic" and Heskey shrugging off Berg in first-half injury time, should have been two up. But Heskey's shot was wild. The single-goal deficit gave Ferguson's men plenty of hope but though Andy Cole, Ryan Giggs, Ole Solksjaer and Teddy Sheringham, when he came on, all took aim they failed to hit the target.

Manchester United: Schmeichel, G Neville, Irwin, Johnsen (Berg 8), Pallister, Beckham, Butt, Cole, Giggs, Scholes (P Neville 84), Solskjaer, Berg (Sheringham 55). Subs Not Used: McClair, Pilkington. Booked: Scholes, Sheringham.

Leicester City: Keller, Savage, Guppy, Kaamark, Elliott, Walsh (Prior 35), Izzet, Lennon, Parker (Campbell 65), Cottee (Wilson 88), Heskey. Subs Not Used: Arphexad, Fenton. Booked: Savage. Goals: Cottee 30.

Referee: G R Ashby (Worcester).