WHEN Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink bore down on goal after accepting Bolo Zenden's pass the last thing the Dutch midfielder expected was to get the ball back.

It may be unfair to accuse Hasselbaink of lacking confidence, especially after ending his goal drought with a pair in the 4-4 draw with Norwich the previous weekend, but it must certainly have crossed the minds of those more accustomed to seeing the striker let fly whenever he's in the same post code as the goal, never mind the penalty box.

One down to John O'Shea's opener and with the interval looming, Zenden nipped in to intercept a loose ball from the otherwise imperious Rio Ferdinand.

A pass to his right gave possession to Hasselbaink but, perhaps with one eye on the in-rushing Gabriel Heinze, he returned the ball to his countryman who found himself too close to keeper Roy Carroll to effect a true shot and the Northern Irishman managed to get a trailing leg on the ball and force a corner.

It could have been, as Zenden admitted, a turning point but it was spurned and Boro's fate was sealed by Wayne Rooney's second-half double.

"At first I thought Jimmy would have had the shot, but he laid it off and I was already standing in front of the goalkeeper," said Zenden.

"I managed to get a chip out of it but he (Carroll) got a good touch with his foot. That was a crucial point because it would have got us back into the game."

Zenden believed Boro's commitment could not be faulted, but they were always up against it after fielding an injury-ravaged side against a team who poured scorn on any accusation that the FA Cup was not important to them.

"We had so many difficulties with injured players," said Zenden alluding to the missing Chris Riggott, Ugo Ehiogu, George Boateng, Gaizka Mendieta and Mark Viduka.

"It's just hard to cope with. I think we worked very hard. We did everything we could to get a result but on the day Manchester United were a different class and the better team."

Boro captain Gareth Southgate said he felt it was unlikely before the game that Boro would be able to replicate their performance in securing a draw at Old Trafford in October and so it proved.

"When we came here in the league we produced an incredible performance to get a draw at a time when United weren't really playing very well," he said.

"We came here again with lots of people missing.

"I felt we battled and gave it our best but this time we were playing a team who were on top of their game - the only slip up they have had recently was against Chelsea and that's because the opposition were so good. We were disappointed we conceded a goal so early but then it was fairly even until they got the second.

"But we probably had one decent chance and when you come to places like his you have to take that . . . the better side won and won comfortably."

Southgate believes the performance at Carrow Road, where Boro let a three goal lead slip in the last 12 minutes, knocked some of the stuffing out of his side.

"The problem we have is that we have had a very tough run of fixtures and after that we had the big disappointment at Norwich last week, so understandably confidence is low," he said.

"I can't fault the effort of the lads, everybody is digging in and it's a period where we have really got to stick together and come through this.

"Very often for clubs like ourselves who have smaller squads, January is a very tough month because you are coming off the back of all the games over Christmas and ideally you freshen things up a bit. But we haven't been able to do that.

"We have to push on.

"We are out of the cup - that's a big disappointment to us, but not a massive surprise having been drawn here (Old Trafford) - so we have to go to Portsmouth now and try and get something there and get our league season back on track."

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