United rescue late point

Two weeks after Michael Owen's last-gasp winner against Manchester City, Anton Ferdinand could not get out of the way of an off-target effort from Patrice Evra to grab United a point and deprive the Black Cats of their first Old Trafford win since 1968.

Sunderland had led twice through goals from Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones either side of Dimitar Berbatov's strike early in the second half.

Bent opened the scoring in front of watching England coach Fabio Capello and what a strike his seventh of the season was in the seventh minute.

He got far enough away from John O'Shea during a lengthy Black Cats build-up to have room to turn away from the Irishman when Lee Cattermole played the final pass and the finish was inch perfect, giving Ben Foster no chance.

United levelled when O'Shea's curling 51st-minute cross was perfectly met by Berbatov's overhead kick, which nestled in the bottom corner.

As they say when the TV picture goes down, normal service was expected to resume shortly. Instead, United conceded again.

Foster, and no doubt Sir Alex Ferguson, who had already been incensed by a couple of Alan Wiley's decisions, will doubtless feel Jones fouled the United keeper as he rose to meet Andy Reid's cross just before the hour mark, but Foster should have been stronger in the challenge. Instead, he was shoved aside to allow Jones to head into an empty net.

Probably only this knowledge kept the hosts going as, even after Kieran Richardson's needless dismissal, it never actually looked like happening.

Evra refused to accept second best, though, leaving Ferdinand to beat the ground in frustration.