WHEN Pompey last beat Manchester United George Best was an 11-year-old boy living in Belfast.

On Saturday he was a guest of Milan Mandaric's at Fratton Park, where Pompey beat the Red Devils for the first time since 1957.

It was one of, if not the biggest win in Mandaric's five years as chairman.

But if it wasn't for Harry Redknapp, Pompey would probably still be languishing in the first division.

"It's good of Mr Mandaric to have faith in me, I only won a championship in my first season!" laughed an ecstatic Redknapp, who is now on the cusp of matching last season's achievement with Premiership survival.

Redknapp is no stranger to famous victories over Manchester United. His AFC Bournemouth side knocked out Ron Atkinson's FA Cup holders in 1984 and West Ham won at Old Trafford in the same competition before Redknapp moved to Pompey as director of football.

But this was his first league victory over Manchester United and it will be worth more than any FA Cup win if it secures Pompey Premiership football for another year.

Steve Stone's first goal since August extended Pompey's unbeaten run to five games, four of which have been won.

Now Redknapp, whose side play Leeds at Elland Road on Sunday morning, reckons one more victory will ensure survival.

He said: "Under the circumstances this was a massive result and it's been a terrific achievement from the players to get 13 points from 15 while playing under pressure.

"If we'd lost we'd have gone to Leeds with only a two point lead but this probably means we need only one more win.

"Now we're only just off teams like Everton and Tottenham. I told the players that if they'd started to play like this a month ago we'd be going for Europe!"

Pompey deserved their win. Stone was the hero - and the man of the match - on his 400th league appearance. He found the bottom corner of Roy Carroll's goal at the second attempt

after a Lomana Lua Lua cross found him in the six yard box ten minutes before half time.

But if it wasn't for Shaka Hislop's first half saves from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Louis Saha either side of Stone's second goal of the season, it would probably have been a very different story.

Hislop palmed a Solskjaer strike behind after the Norwegian had beaten the offside trap. Then he tipped a Saha header over the bar within two minutes of Stone's strike.

He was needed on other occasions before the break, which persuaded Redknapp to return to a 4-4-2 formation after starting adventurously with Eyal Berkovic playing behind Lua Lua and Yakubu.

"Leaving Eyal out was difficult, he's the icing on the cake for us but sometimes the team is more important than the individual," he explained. "They were putting us under cosh at the end of the first half and I couldn't afford to have three people out of the game when they had possession so I thought I'd balance us out."

United dominated an attritional, scrappy second half without ever stretching Hislop. A 30-yard Lua Lua run ended with the first of Pompey's two shots on target in the second half. Yakubu had the other in injury time when, after making a mug of Wes Brown, he was denied by the diving legs of Carroll.

That was after a panic stricken, backs-to-the-wall spell during which Matt Taylor appeared to handle a Gary Neville cross in the penalty area.

Neville was furious when United's pleas for a penalty fell on deaf ears but Sir Alex Ferguson was strangely carefree. He said: "Neale Barry is one of the best decision-makers around, I respect his decisions, and my team put in a big effort.

"It was a frustrating day, normally we would have played the extra pass and showed more composure but I knew it was going to be difficult when they scored.

"The goal was scrappy but it was a great boost to them, they worked their socks off and fought for every ball.

"But prior to that we played some good stuff, our best chances were all in the first half and I couldn't fault my players for effort."