Webb plays his part as United hit back

JAW-DROPPING comebacks are something of an art-form at Manchester United. Now they can add Tottenham 2009 to a list that started with Sheffield Wednesday 1993 and most famously of all includes Barcelona 99.

The 5-2 win over Spurs was more a like an Everton 2007 vintage. Two goals adrift at half-time, their Premier League title challenge apparently holed below the water line. United were sinking fast.

The enormity of what followed is probably lost on Harry Redknapp, who must have spent the weekend cursing Howard Webb and the vital decision he got wrong 12 minutes into the second half at Old Trafford.

But like a great white shark, United are deadly when roused. All the hapless victim can do is close their eyes and hope the end comes quickly.

For Tottenham it was 14 minutes. The time from Ronaldo tucking home his penalty to Jonathan Woodgate failing to keep out a Wayne Rooney shot that crept over the line. Title won, surely.

‘‘It is ours to lose now,’’ said Wayne Rooney.

‘‘If we win it, we might look back on this game. It always gives you a great feeling to come from behind and win any game.

‘‘This is similar. It is a great step for us.’’ With two goals and two assists in a sparkling contribution, Rooney claimed man-of-the-match honours in a truly remarkable victory.

He was not the only contender though. Cristiano Ronaldo kept his nerve to bring United back into the match once Webb had made what Redknapp described as the ‘‘terrible mistake’’ of ruling Heurelho Gomes had brought down Michael Carrick, missing the fact Tottenham’s keeper had also played the ball.

Carrick himself and Paul Scholes, who turned the United juggernaut to full speed. And what of Carlos Tevez, seemingly destined to leave Old Trafford in the summer frustrated by a lack of opportunities, whose half-time introduction was the catalyst for what followed?

‘‘The first half was really poor,’’ reflected Rooney. ‘‘We were flat and we needed a lift.

‘‘Carlos provided it. He got the crowd up and started to find space. He was a big reason why we got the result.’’ Like most United comebacks, it was more amazing because no-one would have spotted it coming in the first half even if they had been using a telescope.

Dreary and lethargic, unhinged on one side by Aaron Lennon’s pace, on the other by Rafael Da Silva’s lack of experience, the Red Devils deservedly trailed at the break.

Darren Bent and Luka Modric snaffled the kind of closerange chances Spurs’ last Old Trafford matchwinner, Gary Lineker, used to adore and nothing, it seemed would prevent them emulating that 1989 triumph.

Enter Webb.

‘‘We have watched it 50 times,’’ grumbled Redknapp.

‘‘It is a great bit of goalkeeping.

The referee has not done it on purpose but it was a terrible decision.

‘‘I am not making excuses for conceding bad goals but without that bit of help there was no way United were going to get back into it.’’ Redknapp might be right.

However, if one team can still be relied upon to collapse totally in such a situation, Spurs are it. At White Hart Lane in September 2001, United were three goals down at half-time and won 5-3. It appears little has changed.

Once Ronaldo scored from the spot, what followed must have been painfully familiar.

Rooney, a Ronaldo diving header, Rooney again. The coup-de-grace was a close range effort from an underfire Dimitar Berbatov.