BY OLIVER HOLT ( The Times )

THERE is a hoarding by the side of the pitch at the Riverside advertising a musical playing in these parts. It says Four Steps to Heaven: The Concert That Never Happened, and yesterday Manchester United almost provided the organisers with a footballing allegory.

They have four games remaining now, two league matches and two cup finals, before they can ascend to their own nirvana by winning the Treble, but they flirted so intimately with disaster on Teesside that their supporters had begun to have dreadful visions of the championship slipping away.

Anything other than a win against Middlesbrough after the hiccups of consecutive away draws at Elland Road and Anfield would have left Arsenal firmly in the driving seat with two games left and United desperately trying to rebuild sinking confidence and telling themselves that they had not thrown it all away again.

When Middlesbrough created three good chances in the space of ten minutes in the first half, one of them brushing the outside of a post, and United spurned what opportunities came their way, it seemed that they were tottering on the brink of the precipice.

Things became worse when Roy Keane, their captain, limped off in the 25th minute after trying manfully to run off an ankle injury that he sustained in a heavy challenge from Mark Summerbell. Keane later left the ground on crutches amid fears that his season, already cruelly truncated by suspension from the European Cup final, may be over.

Instead of toppling into the chasm, though, United dragged themselves back into the thick of the race with a Dwight Yorke header on the stroke of half-time that took them back to the top of the FA Carling Premiership by virtue of the greater amount of goals scored.

They are level on points with Arsenal and the goal difference of the two teams is identical. It is a straight shoot-out now, a contest to see whether United can improve their goal difference against Blackburn Rovers and Tottenham Hotspur better than Arsenal can against Leeds United and Aston Villa.

Their trump card is the fact that Arsenal must play at Elland Road tomorrow night against a Leeds side brimming with youth and confidence and class, spurred on by one of the most partisan crowds in the country. It is the toughest of the four games either club has left.

The performance yesterday, though, will not have filled United's supporters with optimism that they will prevail. If Arsenal are on a surge, United are showing increasing signs of fatigue. This was a chance to put some daylight between them and the champions in terms of goal difference and they wasted it. If there was much to be admired in their approach play, particularly the distribution and touch of Teddy Sheringham, their finishing was inaccurate and woolly, the absolute antithesis of Arsenal's clinical display in their 6-1 romp here a fortnight ago.

That, in fact, is the irony. For all of United's superiority over Arsenal in goalscoring this season - they have 78 compared with Arsenal's 58 - the knack appears to have deserted them when they need it most.

They should have taken the lead in the seventeenth minute but Yorke could only head over the crossbar from close range when David Beckham's cross found him at the near post. Paul Scholes, too, should have made more of a perceptive pass from Nicky Butt that somehow became stuck between his legs.

By then, a Middlesbrough side flecked with callow novices on one hand and veterans such as Andy Townsend struggling to keep up on the other, had sensed that they had a chance to take the game to United.

They began to launch a bombardment of long balls at the United defence and Brian Deane caused them all manner of discomfort by dropping deep to flick them on unchallenged for Hamilton Ricard, Dean Gordon and Summerbell.

From one of these knockdowns, Summerbell clipped his shot against the outside of Schmeichel's right-hand post in the 27th minute. Three minutes later, Deane nodded on a long throw and Gordon hooked it over the bar at the back post before Deane wasted another opportunity, scuffing his shot after Gordon's mishit drive had landed at his feet.

It was very much against the run of play, then, that United scored. Middlesbrough failed to clear a free kick from Beckham and when Butt lobbed it back into the area, United were allowed to play on even though Yorke was offside. Sheringham nodded it across goal and Yorke headed it past Schwarzer. It was his 29th goal of the season.

Middlesbrough were furious that the goal was allowed to stand, although they had profited from an earlier decision when Sheringham had a goal ruled out even though television replays showed that he was clearly onside. Still, the resolve of the home side suffered in the second half. Yorke should have added a second goal 15 minutes from the end after Sheringham's splendid chip had played him in, but Schwarzer pushed his bobbling shot wide.

Seven minutes later, Cole wasted an even better chance. Beckham lobbed a beautifully weighted pass into his path but he took one touch too many, got too close to Schwarzer and lifted his shot on to the top of the Middlesbrough crossbar.

"We came here to do two jobs today," Steve McClaren, the United assistant manager, said. "One was to win, the other was to score goals. We are back on top and pleased to be there, but a bit disappointed that the chances were not put away.

"It was hot but I didn't think we looked tired. In fact, I was impressed with the way that the lads closed Middlesbrough down. The way they are working for each other, and playing for each other, and all the talent and ability they have, suggests to me that they are still more than capable of winning the last four games."

It might have been a struggle, but the four last steps are still there to be taken. Heaven is waiting.

Middlesbrough (3-5-2): M Schwarzer - J Gavin (sub: A Campbell, 73min), G Pallister, S Vickers - R Stockdale, M Summerbell, R Mustoe, A Townsend, D Gordon - B Deane, H Ricard.

Manchester United (4-4-2): P Schmeichel - G Neville, D May, J Stam, D Irwin - D Beckham, R Keane (sub: N Butt, 25), P Scholes (sub: P Neville, 90), J Blomqvist (sub: A Cole, 66) - E Sheringham, D Yorke.

Referee: G Barber.