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• Sir Alex Ferguson can no longer hide United’s weak points
• Liverpool’s FA Cup victory shows United need to spend

Many emotions coursed through the minds of Liverpool supporters but they would not have included a pang of sympathy for the beaten manager. So jumbled has the football scene become that the late winner in an intense match was not for once the inevitable property of Manchester United. The circumstances, with Patrice Evra badly at fault, might have been dictated by a vengeful Anfield crowd.

The left-back is no innocent party in their eyes, even if an independent commission found only Liverpool’s Luis Suárez guilty of racist abuse in an exchange between the players during a game in October. The eight-match ban encompassed the encounter on Saturday but Evra, the United captain, had to endure punishment on the field. He was barracked throughout, yet the animosity was not based on skin colour.

So far as the home support was concerned, this was traditional antipathy, with the intensity a notch higher than usual. The Liverpool fans even chanted some guidelines. It was explained they were not racist but simply hated “Mancs”. Amid the bedlam and rage, Evra, normally a sound defender, let his concentration snap in the 88th minute.

He took up a position too far towards his left and so created a gap in the middle of the United defence. Andy Carroll met a long ball from his goalkeeper Pepe Reina and glanced it towards Dirk Kuyt, with the substitute’s angled shot finding the right-hand corner of the net. That incident hardly reflected the nature of the match, but there was an insistence to Liverpool that could not be denied.

The comforting prospect of a replay at Old Trafford might have undermined United but there are broader causes behind the defeat. The means available to United are not so great as in times gone by and not even Ferguson will be sure of manipulating them to achieve the desired result. Rio Ferdinand, at 33, cannot appear as regularly as he once did and was an unused substitute.

Paul Scholes acquitted himself admirably but the re-emergence from retirement of a 37-year-old can bring difficulties of its own. The midfielder was positioned in front of the backline and while that prevents him from exercising devilment and imagination on the attack it does allow him to remain on the pitch for longer. However, 90 minutes is still too much and Liverpool’s surge owed something to his substitution with 14 minutes remaining.

Ferguson is obliged to deal in the sort of caution not associated with United. The rate of scoring is still a good one but their firepower can look diminished just when goals are badly needed. United could not achieve anything close to mastery over Basel in the critical Champions League away game and were deservedly eliminated in the group phase.

The injury that ended Nemanja Vidic’s season on that evening in Switzerland has done the sort of damage that cannot be camouflaged. With Wayne Rooney unavailable through injury, Ferguson attempted to get by with just one attacker in Danny Welbeck until the 89th minute, when Dimitar Berbatov was sent on in desperation.

United were the more accomplished side but the impact was small. Liverpool are 16 points adrift of them in the

• Striker says he is happy at the club and on Merseyside
• Merseyside police detain man for alleged racist gesture

Andy Carroll has said he has no desire to leave Liverpool after the club tried to exchange him for Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez only a year after his £35m arrival from Newcastle United.

Carroll, who has scored only six times for Kenny Dalglish’s team since becoming Britain’s most expensive footballer 12 months ago, was also linked with a return to Newcastle United earlier in the transfer window. Having produced a battling display in Saturday’s FA

• Fan appears to make monkey signs
• Photograph is circulated on Twitter

Liverpool knocked Manchester United out of the FA Cup but were put on the defensive when the question of racism again raised its head at Anfield. An image of a Liverpool fan appearing to make an offensive monkey gesture in the direction of Patrice Evra was circulated on Twitter, prompting Merseyside police to investigate.

Patrice Evra, who became embroiled in a row that led to Luis Suárez being found guilty of racially abusing the United defender in the 1-1 draw on 15 October, was booed loudly every time he touched the ball during the Cup tie, which Liverpool won 2–1.

“This matter is now under investigation by specialist hate crime detectives and we are working with Liverpool Football Club to identify the man in question,” said the match commander, Ch Supt Jon Ward, while Liverpool asked supporters who may be able to help to contact the club.

When Kenny Dalglish was asked what he thought of Evra’s every touch being booed, the Liverpool manager responded: “Are you winding me up?” He added: “Why would I be disappointed for Patrice Evra? I can’t believe you have asked that question before anything else. Have you ever played football? I used to get booed.

“The media has played its part this week in trying to maintain dignity and respect on the pitch and to concentrate on the game. The behaviour of both sets of players on the pitch was a credit to the game. There was banter between the two sets of fans but it was friendly. There may not have been a lot of respect, but both sets of supporters were brilliant. I don’t think there was anything there that was untoward.”

The Kop joined in several choruses of “There’s only one lying bastard”, putting into words what appeared to be the underlying theme of Liverpool’s defence of Suárez.

Queens Park Rangers players took a collective decision to back Anton Ferdinand by not shaking hands with their opponents before their Cup tie with Chelsea at Loftus Road, which they lost 1–0. However, the Football Association chose to discard the usual pre-match convention. The issue was a concern due to John Terry being accused of making a racially abusive slur at Ferdinand in October. Terry will answer the charge, which he denies, at West London magistrates’ court on