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Fergie turns to Red Vikings

UNITED will use their all-Scandinavian strike-force of Henrik Larsson and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the FA Cup this weekend to bounce back from dropping two priceless points in the Premiership title race.

Reds' boss Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed, after his side's 2-2 draw at Newcastle, that former Celtic and Barcelona Swedish hero Larsson will team up with Norwegian legend Solskjaer.

Ferguson was toying with the idea already, but a groin injury to joint top-scorer Louis Saha has made his mind up for him.

Solskjaer stayed at home for the trip to the North East, leaving United without a striker on the bench, but will return in the Cup tie against Villa.

Fergie said: "I didn't take Ole to Newcastle because he has played two games in four days and I thought he would be better resting ready for Sunday's match. He will play along with Larsson."

Larsson's arrival signals a greater depth of available resources but Ferguson reflected on losing the lead at Newcastle when his team appeared to be in control, and feared that the result may haunt the Reds in the title race.

"I just hope we don't look back at the end of May and say this was a throwaway," said the Reds' boss, who had the shine taken off his New Year's Eve 65th birthday celebrations.

"Even after we lost the first goal we made four chances in the last 15 minutes of the first half.

"Defensively we did very well most of the time - they scored a screamer for the first and a deflected shot for the second which was a bit unfortunate for us, as we had three shots cleared off the line and missed some great chances."