If ever Sir Alex Ferguson felt a pang of guilt for leaving a player out of his starting line-up, it was most likely that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was the cause of it.
The Norwegian was a consummate professional who would rarely complain and instead went dutifully about his business. “I’m sure he hates being called a super-sub, and it’s unfair, but the fact is…he is”, noted Ferguson after the game.
That Solskjaer had the ability to read a match and make an impact on it was undoubted, as he so brilliantly exhibited with a quite remarkable performance as a substitute in an 8-1 rout at the City Ground.