BY Joe Lovejoy ( The Times )

WHAT a finish, what a story. There were nearly four minutes of added time on that stopwatch Alex Ferguson carries like a torch when David Beckham brought the house down.

Beckham, who had been cheered or jeered throughout, according to the crowd's persuasion, rescued a point from a tepid United performance with one of those trademark free kicks - shades of Colombia, rather than his Argy-bargy that cost England so dear during the World Cup.

Leicester, 2-0 up with 79 minutes gone, were desperately close to repeating their success in the corresponding fixture last January. Organised, purposeful and industrious throughout, they would not have been flattered by another win against opponents who failed to score against them at home or away last season.

They led, deservedly, through close-range goals by Emile Heskey and Tony Cottee, and there was a strong element of good fortune about the involuntary header with which Teddy Sheringham brought United back into the game, setting the stage for Beckham's finale. "It was a good result for us in the end," Ferguson said, "but whether we deserved a draw is debatable. We built up some momentum in the second half, but it took us half an hour to get into the game."

Here we go again, in more ways than one. Thanks to the World Cup, it seems that football has never been away and, certainly, this was a continuation of last season, the fallibility that cost United their title again apparent. The familiar weakness in central defence was there for all to see as Cottee, a towering 5ft 8in, scored with his head, and Heskey poked home a soft goal.

Jaap Stam, bought to remedy such shortcomings, clearly needs time to settle in, but the process will be hampered by the pulled thigh muscle that forced him to withdraw at half-time. He is expected to be out for two weeks.

For United, the start was reminiscent of the Charity Shield rather than the midweek victory against Lodz. It took them an eternity to get going after Leicester set them back on their heels by taking a deserved early lead.

Both sides broke their transfer record in recruiting defenders during the summer, United paying £10.5m for Stam, Leicester £2m to snap up Jamaica's Frank Sinclair. The Dutchman's pedigree is such that his time will surely come, but, on the day, it was Sinclair who had much the more satisfying debut. His pacy interventions caught the eye whenever United threatened, his fire-fighting an effective complement to the more rugged deterrence provided by Matt Elliott and Steve Walsh.

The busily competitive team Martin O'Neill has assembled may be shoestring to United's Gucci, but their ambitious young manager has done remarkably well in the past two years, keeping them in the top half of the table. Yesterday, his players did him proud once again, hitting the ground running. As early as the second minute, Heskey's pace took him past Stam and into the penalty area, where his volley was smothered by Peter Schmeichel at the second attempt.

United were caught flat-footed, and there was only one team in it when, in the seventh minute, Muzzy Izzet slalomed in along the byline on the left, beating Gary Neville on the way, before finding Heskey with the aid of an obliging deflection. The burly striker they call Bruno looked as stiff and awkward as the real thing as the ball came to him, his body position all wrong. He was falling backwards, in an effort to readjust, when he made contact, but his toe-poke was good enough to go in, via the underside of the crossbar.

Old Trafford fell into a fretful silence as Leicester continued to make the running, Steve Guppy crossing for Cottee, who spurned another chance by opting to flick at the ball with the outside of a boot, ballooning it over. United's first goal attempt of any consequence took half an hour to arrive, a flying save by Kasey Keller keeping out Beckham's bristling range-finder. Denis Irwin, closer in, shot over with a rising drive, then Roy Keane, set up by Andy Cole's lay-off, shot straight at Keller from 20 yards, as did Ronny Johnsen, on the half-volley. The red-clad giant was stirring, at last.

Despite the improvement, however, United lacked cohesion and penetration, stymied by O'Neill's battlers.

Leicester, on the other hand, were splendidly resolute and aggressive and had the reward of a second goal after 76 minutes. A crisp passing movement took the ball out to the right, from where Robbie Savage's cross was headed in on the run by Cottee, to the obvious embarrassment of defenders some six inches taller. "We are top of the League," chortled the visiting fans only to have their celebrations curtailed by United's reply. With Izzet down, injured, Sheringham signalled to Beckham to put the ball out of play, to allow the Leicester player to get treatment. Instead, the England paragon/pariah powered in a shot which caught Sheringham unawares, hitting him on the head and going in.

Leicester still thought they had won it but, with the clock showing 93 minutes 55 seconds, Izzet fouled Paul Scholes 25 yards out and Beckham stepped up. Cue delirium.

"Nothing special," sniffed Ferguson, who was in curmudgeonly mood. "He does it in training every day." And while we were at it, the referee should have played even longer. "I made it eight-and-a-half minutes, and my watch is never wrong."

Déjà vu, they call it.

Manchester United: Schmeichel, G. Neville (Sheringham 77), Irwin, Johnsen, Stam (Berg 45), Beckham, Butt, Cole, Giggs, Keane, Scholes.

Leicester: Keller (Arphexad 61), Savage, Guppy, Sinclair, Elliott (Taggart 89), Walsh, Izzet, Lennon, Zagorakis, Cottee (Wilson 83), Heskey.

Scorers: Manchester United: Sheringham 79, Beckham 90.

Scorers: Leicester City: Heskey 7, Cottee 76.

Referee: N Barry (Scunthorpe).

Attendance: 55,052.