United's title hopes dented by Boksic strike

Manchester United's English premier league title chances suffered a massive blow on Saturday when Middlesbrough pulled off a stunning 1-0 victory at Old Trafford.

Croatian Alen Boksic exploited the hosts' leaky defence to score the winner after nine minutes as United, seeking an unprecedented fourth straight championship, suffered their eighth league defeat of the season.

Alex Ferguson's side remained top of the table with 64 points, but second-placed Arsenal -- who beat Newcastle United 3-0 in the FA Cup quarter-final replay earlier on Saturday -- are just one point behind with two games in hand.

Liverpool, in third with 62 points, face Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday.

"It's a disappointing result, disappointing performance," United manager Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports.

"We didn't really deserve to win the match, because we didn't create enough chances to win it -- and we've no excuses really.

"I thought maybe we would have galvanised ourselves in the second half. Although the tempo of the game went up and the pace of the game went up and we did our very best in terms of effort, we didn't show enough quality to win it."

SCORING CHANCES

United created plenty of scoring chances but were denied by a rare off-day for Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy and some dogged defending from Boro, inspired by former United midfielder Paul Ince, who was roundly booed as usual on his return to Old Trafford.

It was Ferguson's second nasty surprise of the season from his former assistant and current Boro manager, Steve McClaren, whose team bundled United out of the FA Cup in the fourth round.

"To come and perform here in front of 60,000 people, it means a great deal," Ince said. "Not many teams come here and win."

In the battle for the fourth and final Champions League slot, albeit in the qualifying round, Leeds United made ground on Newcastle with a 2-0 victory at Leicester City.

Robbie Fowler, chasing a place in England's World Cup squad, scored one and set up the other for strike partner Mark Viduka.

"We're taking all the games now as an individual cup final," Leeds manager David O'Leary said.

Newcastle are fourth with 56 points from 30 games, two points ahead of Leeds, who have played a game more, and three in front of Chelsea.

Down at the other end of the table, relegation-threatened Everton scraped their second victory in succession under new boss David Moyes, beating second-bottom Derby County 4-3 in a thriller at Pride Park to climb to 13th place in the table.

Youri Djorkaeff moved Bolton Wanderers moved out of the bottom three by scoring his first goals for the club in a 2-1 victory at Charlton Athletic, who missed a penalty.

"We've been searching for goals and we got two today from Djorkaeff," Bolton manager Sam Allardyce said. "And that's the difference. It's a very valuable three points that takes us out of the bottom three."

Ipswich Town slipped into the relegation zone after they were forced to settle for a 0-0 draw at home to Aston Villa. The Suffolk club look condemned as much by the coming fixture list as their past performances, with Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool among their opponents in the last four games of the season.

Sunderland conceded a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Southampton at the Stadium of Light.

Fulham entertain Tottenham Hotspur in Sunday's other match.