BY OLIVER HOLT ( The Times )

FOUR years ago, he had been held up as a symbol of failure, a man who was not quite up to it, exposed in the cruellest of circumstances and had surrendered, even sabotaged, Manchester United's chances of winning the championship.Andy Cole missed a hatful of chances that day at Upton Park, some of them glaring and his side's failure to beat West Ham United handed the championship to Blackburn Rovers. His Old Trafford career from that day to this has been a search for redemption.

Yesterday, at last, he found itand this time Cole did not waste his chance. He had been on the pitch for only three minutes, a half-time substitute for Teddy Sheringham, when it came his way and he finished it with aplomb. If he had missed it, who knows what would have happened. Arsenal scored soon after at Highbury, the goal that beat Aston Villa. United needed that goal from Cole and the beauty of it was that he probably would not have scored it four years ago.

But he has changed. He is a better striker now and this strike was perfection. First, he controlled Gary Neville's pass as it dropped over his shoulder with one touch, then he lobbed it unerringly over Ian Walker into the net and the celebrations began. His contribution after that was minimal, but that did not matter. This time, he had won the championship, not lost it.

After the match, when the presentations had finished and the cheering had begun to subside, he and Dwight Yorke, his friend, were the last men to leave the pitch. The moment had been a long time coming. Cole wanted to savour it.

In the game's opening minutes, it had seemed that United might not need his intervention. Sheringham was preferred to Cole in attack and United started as if this would be the smoothest of victories.

Yorke hit the post in the fifth minute when he blocked Walker's clearance with an outstretched leg and five minutes later Tottenham Hotspur's main threat disappeared when David Ginola, the focus of most Arsenal hopes, limped off after a challenge from Gary Neville.

After their early dominance, United had little warning of what was to come, so the shock of the Spurs goal came like a rifle shot out of the clear blue yonder. It was quick and clinical, too, a long ball over the top, a flick from Steffen Iversen and Ferdinand reacted quickest to lift a lazy lob over Schmeichel that bounced once and then bulged the roof of the net.

United looked stunned and for a few minutes it seemed as if everything was about to unravel. Beckham was rattled, Sheringham, baited again by Tottenham fans, was booked for a foul on Campbell and could have been sent off for another on Dominguez. Giggs started hitting long, aimless balls forward. Doubts started to creep in.

Walker had already made a fistful of fine saves, but, in the space of a few seconds ten minutes before half-time, he made two wonderful stops from Scholes. First, he flung himself to his left to beat out a drive and then, when the ball was played back in by Sheringham, he got down fast to block Scholes's shot with his legs.Even then, the opportunity was not gone. The ball found its way out to the United left and when Giggs crossed it into the box, Beckham stole in front of Edinburgh but sent his header looping over the crossbar.

Despair was threatening to engulf United, but, as he has done so many times before, Keane refused to be cowed, giving them the inspiration that they needed when others were wavering. One surging run set up another chance for Scholes and gradually, after Gary Neville had made a desperate block from Iversen and Schmeichel had made a diving save from the Norway striker, belief returned. Two minutes before half-time, United drew level.

The move started with Giggs, who played the ball from left to right to Scholes, who laid it out to Beckham on the right. He sent his shot arrowing high past the outstretched arm of Walker into the top corner of the net.

Ferguson brought Cole on for Sheringham at half-time and, within three minutes, he had scored the winner. Gary Neville's ball played him into the box, but after the profligacy that had gone before and that which was to follow, his finish seemed all the classier.

After that, United's nerves increasingly got the better of the and, by the end, Alex Ferguson was rushing down from his perch in the stands, yelling red-faced rebukes and jabbing managerial fingers at his players, who were aiming for the corners in an attempt to waste time. It might not quite have been the drubbing that home supporters had wished for, but then that would have diluted Cole's achievement and he, as much as any of the United players, deserves his moment in the sun. "If I had known he would turn out like this," George Graham, the manager who once let him leave Highbury, said at the end, "I would never have sold him."

Manchester United (4-4-2): P Schmeichel - G Neville, R Johnsen, D May, D Irwin - D Beckham, R Keane, P Scholes (sub: N Butt 70min), R Giggs (sub: P Neville 80) - E Sheringham (sub: A Cole 46), D Yorke.

Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-2): I Walker - S Carr, J Scales (sub: L Young, 70min), S Campbell, J Edinburgh - D Anderton, S Freund, T Sherwood, D Ginola (sub: J Dominguez 10, sub: A Sinton 78) - S Iversen, L Ferdinand.

Referee: G Poll.