BY KEVIN McCARRA ( The Times )

A SURPRISED Old Trafford bubbled, in the second half, with the merriment of people disovering that rationing has just been abolished. Until then, they might have expected another afternoon of stern, if productive, measures. Manchester United, the leaders of the FA Carling Premiership, occasionally grade their games, allocating just enough flair and energy to overcome the weaker teams.

This match yesterday appeared to have been cut from the same pattern as victories over Derby County and Southampton, in which deliberately weakened line-ups failed to score in the first half, before scrambling success after the interval. It was not even clear that United would enjoy that degree of effectiveness. With Roy Keane and Paul Scholes suspended, and Ryan Giggs injured, Alex Ferguson, the United manager, also chose to omit Denis Irwin.

Even minimalism can run to excess and United were running a risk. Those regulars who remain in the team in this situation must function, because there are too few established men around them to compensate for any lapse. For a long time, United's expertise was not operational. The deficit in performance could be glimpsed when someone such as David Beckham, the virtuoso of the cross, hit the first defender as he tried to deliver the ball.

So great are the reserves of talent, though, that United are always likely to tap it at some point. In this case, Dwight Yorke, the leading scorer, turned himself into an accomplice as others burgled the goals from a defence that had been well-secured. His work as a provider had, curiously, been less impressive when he was drifting behind the attack.

At the interval, Ferguson restored his partnership with Andy Cole and tucked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on the left wing. The Norwegian, nonetheless, was not at all isolated from impact. After 54 minutes, Yorke was the pivot in the one-two that took Solskjaer through to drive across Thomas Myhre. It was his sixteenth goal in a season in which he has started just 14 games.

The Everton goalkeeper was then seen squabbling with the men in front of him, but any offence was venial when compared with Myhre's failings for the second goal. Yorke, in the 63rd minute, struck a studied pass into the right of the penalty area. Myhre was expected to be first to it and, even had he elected to remain on his line, he would have been safe, so acute was the angle for the advancing Gary Neville.

As it was, he did not collect and the full back, beating him to the ball, squeezed a shot into the untended net. Neville had not scored for almost two years, but, then again, he is rarely abetted in this fashion, either. United would probably have coped without the assistance, even if the scale of the victory might have been reduced.

"We have had a spell of six games in 18 days in which the players have excelled," Ferguson said. "They go off with their countries now, but they will return from that break ready for the challenge."

Giggs, Solskjaer and Beckham are all injured, although, according to Ferguson, the latter has a chance of overcoming a calf strain in time for England's game with Poland on Saturday.

The force with which Beckham established a 3-0 lead might, by itself, have been enough to make a muscle twang. Without a goal since November 4, he studied a free kick hungrily before bending the ball into the top corner in the 66th minute.

"It was good for him to score," Ferguson said. "He has had a little drought, because we can usually count on him for 12 or 14 goals a season."

At Everton, every player is experiencing a famine. No matter how rugged they can look in defence, they are always vulnerable because they cannot transfer the pressure to the opposition by scoring. The resistance shown early in the game was of no comfort to Walter Smith, the manager, who said: "We weren't really getting out of our own half."

It would be glib to invest Ibrahima Bakayoko's early hamstring injury with significance. The forward has too rarely been relevant, even when in perfect health.

Don Hutchison did find the net with a booming free kick in the 71st minute, but, at that stage, the audience was more absorbed in considering Jonathan Greening, a lively substitute, who was twice close to scoring for United. Everton will have to give opponents food for thought before they can nourish their hopes of staying in the Premiership.

Manchester United (4-3-1-2): P Schmeichel - G Neville, J Stam, H Berg, P Neville - D Beckham (sub: J Greening, 70min), N Butt, R Johnsen - D Yorke - O G Solskjaer (sub: J Curtis, 90), A Cole (sub: E Sheringham, 67).

Everton (4-4-2): T Myhre - D Weir, M Materazzi, C Short, M Ball - J O'Kane (sub: F Jeffers, 60), O Dacourt, A Grant, D Unsworth - I Bakayoko (sub: D Cadamarteri, 5), D Hutchison.

Referee: M Riley.