On another day we could have come away with atleast a point. So, Gordon Strachan should be given plenty of credit for his work. Refreshingly though, Strachan is the first to point out that he made a mistake in bringing on Delap for Ormerod, inviting more pressure on the Saints defence. To be fair to Strachan, it's a standard tactic. Nearly every manager does it, and I'm sure most would have tried it at Old Trafford too.
Unfortunately, my years of being a Saints fan have taught me that inviting pressure anywhere near our defence is courting with disaster. Perhaps other clubs also then have a nervy last 15 minutes trying to hoof the ball clear of their lines, perhaps it's just the Saints that it doesn't work for.
Strachan, I feel, will be looking a bit more closely at it in future. "We lost because of one fantastic goal by them and a bad mistake by me," said Strachan. "I felt my midfield players were dropping deeper and I wanted somebody in between them and the strikers.
"I thought we had weathered the storm - then they got that wonder goal."
Gordon's right. Had we weathered the storm, then no one would be saying anything. He even expressed that he wanted a particular shape when he made the change. I've never seen Saints keep to the strategy he was looking for. Perhaps it's the players who need coaching in it, rather than the manager having to come up with a new approach.
Having Delap in above the midfield would indeed have had the desired effect. Unfortunately, Delap had to chase a third united striker around, which also led to the shape being lost.
"Rory has played as striker before so I thought he could fill that gap and make it almost 4-4-1-1," said Strachan. "I felt he would also give us more height at set-pieces.
"I was beginning to think we might just sneak a win and thought he might help us if he could get his long stride going.
"It did not work because it gave United a bit of momentum, although they did not hurt us at that time. I then switched it round and put Anders Svensson in that forward role which was much better but United were really going for it.
Still, if a bit of hindsight is the most worrying thing that Saints have to worry about after a trip to Old Trafford then we're going to have a great season. That's mostly down to all those other decisions Strachan gets right.
"It's not often you feel really good about yourself when you leave Old Trafford," said Strachan.
"We have a good bunch of players here and while we are disappointed to lose, at least they will be able to go home and tell their families they came here and gave it a really good shot."
- Sorry, no Saints Snapshots today as all the news agencies we're contracted with are Man Utd fans and there aren't any decent Saints pics. !!**@