[HanautoSancho]

By Oliver Holt

Forget the result. It was irrelevant. Last night was about Manchester United and David Beckham.

It was about a famous old club and the return of one of its favourite sons.

It was about a man who is still hero-worshipped by the supporters of a team he left nearly seven years ago.

A man met not by the V-signs and faces contorted with hate that is the usual greeting for players going back to their old stomping grounds in English football.

A man greeted instead with standing ovations and cheers and chants asking United boss Sir Alex Ferguson to bring Beckham back for a career swansong.

And it was about Beckham’s first, and probably his last, chance to say goodbye to Old Trafford and to thank United’s supporters.

Beckham knew how to do that. There is a great populist behind his quiet exterior. He has always had an instinct for that kind of thing and it didn’t let him down last night.

So when the final whistle had blown, he grasped straight away that there was one thing he could do that would mean more than anything else.

As he walked towards the tunnel, gulping back the emotion welling up inside him as the crowd stood to acclaim him, Beckham bent in front of the Stretford End, the emotional heart of the club, and picked something off the turf.

It was a scarf, a green and gold scarf, the symbol of peaceful protest that has been adopted so successfully by fans opposed to the Glazer regime that runs the club.

And just before he disappeared down the Old Trafford tunnel for the last time, he wrapped the scarf around his neck. The fans let out a mighty cheer and then Beckham was gone.

Only Beckham could conjure a dramatic exit like that at the end of a game where Milan had been embarrassed by a brilliant United team led by Wayne Rooney.

But who cared by then that Milan had been beaten 4-0 on the night and 7-2 on aggregate? The occasion wasn’t about that. It was obvious from what happened at the San Siro three weeks ago that United were a cut above their opponents anyway.

The tie was over as a contest by the time United flew out of Milan clasping a 3-2 lead. All that was left was the return of the world’s most famous footballer to the place where it all began.

The night didn’t start the way Beckham would have intended it to. Milan coach Leonardo left him on the bench, preferring former Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini.

So to begin with, Beckham had to make do with renewing old acquaintances. He wrapped former United manager Wilf McGuinness in a hug as he warmed up before the start and waved to mum, Sandra, and sister, Joanne, as they stood watching proudly from the directors’ box.

Still, a place in the dug-out, watching his old friends Gary Neville and Paul Scholes helping United to extend their lead in the tie, would not have been what Beckham envisaged when this second round tie was first announced.

He may also have been marginally surprised to read Ferguson’s notes in last night’s match programme.

He knows what his former manager is like of course - he described him as ’a scary man’ when he landed here on Tuesday - but Ferguson’s lack of grace about Beckham’s return has been striking.

Ferguson wrote about 800 words in his notes and did not mention Beckham once. No welcome back. Nothing. It sometimes seems as if the United boss wants to turn Beckham into a non-person.

All Beckham could do was sit and wait, desperately hoping for a chance to come on and change the game as it slipped further and further away from Milan.

Old Trafford waited, too. With increasing impatience. Once it had become clear that Milan posed no danger to United’s hopes of reaching the quarter-finals, seeing Beckham treading the Old Trafford turf again became the crowd’s primary objective.

After Rooney had put United 2-0 up on the night early in the second half, Beckham began to warm up and the crowd begged Leonardo to bring him on. “We want Beckham,” they sang. “We want Beckham.”

Beckham finally got the signal from Leonardo in the 64th minute and when he came on for right back Ignazio Abate, he was met with a huge cheer and a prolonged standing ovation from the entire ground.

But Ji-Sung Park had put United 3-0 up by then, Milan were 6-2 down on aggregate and the tie was dead. Reviving Milan’s hopes was beyond even a man with Beckham’s unrivalled talent for rescuing what seems like lost causes.

He did hit one superb volley 15 minutes from the end, a brilliant effort that stung Edwin Van Der Sar’s hands as he pushed it over the bar.

And Milan looked like a far better side with him on the pitch. He managed one last deliciously curling cross in front of the old Scoreboard End where he got the equaliser against Spurs that helped clinch the league for United in the Treble season. Filippo Inzaghi only needed to get a firm touch on it to score but he could not provide it.

Soon after Beckham came on, Ferguson withdrew Neville, Rooney and Scholes. Neville seemed briefly as if he was going to shake his old friend’s hand as he jogged off but he swerved away at the last second. Both men laughed.

All that was left was the nostalgia. At first the crowd booed Beckham when he got the ball, knowing that he was in on the joke. It was pantomime stuff.

But every time Beckham took a corner, the crowd rose to its feet as one to acclaim him.

The night was a triumph for his qualities as a man and for the loyalty he showed to United both while he was here and since he has left.

It was still Beckham’s night. His old team spoiled it a little bit but a part of Beckham, the part that picked up that green and gold scarf and put it round his neck, will be happy even about that.