Daily Echo deputy sports editor Simon Straker, a Manchester United fan, gives an Old Trafford view of Saturday's game...

SAINTS were beaten by a better team on Saturday and few expected a different result.

But something tells me that, while not playing particularly badly, Saints missed a trick at Old Trafford.

This is a crucial month for Manchester United. With leaders Chelsea showing no signs of slipping up at the top of the table, all United can do to cling on to their coat-tails is win every game.

That's a tall order and Saturday was one of those days when a down-in-the-dumps Saints side could have thrown a major spanner in the works... just as they did five weeks ago at Arsenal.

But Saints chose the wrong game plan of piling men behind the ball and hoping for a breakaway goal, especially given the enterprising team selected.

Saints had Kevin Phillips and James Beattie back in tandem with the creative Anders Svensson in the middle. And, even when Beattie departed early, Saints still had Dexter Blackstock and Peter Crouch as striking options on the bench with flair player Fabrice Fernandes also available.

They certainly lined up as if they had come with the intention to compete, another sign being Graeme Le Saux being pushed forward into midfield from left-back.

But I left Old Trafford wondering whether Wigley is picking the team and someone else is actually doing the team talks and tactics.

Why pick that team and then send them out to play negatively?

The United fans were tense for the first 35 minutes as chances went begging, so much so that the main songs ringing out from the terraces hailed the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and, as ever, Eric Cantona.

Sir Alex Ferguson would have loved to have his Dutch hitman leading the line and United were frustrated at half-time, no doubt about it.

But the first goal was always coming while Saints showed no invention and, when it came, it was game over and United strolled to victory.

If Beattie is to be sold in January, we all know Rupert Lowe isn't likely to splash out on a big-name replacement, so there will be even less of a goal threat.

And you have to fear for Saints' safety as a result.