Sir Alex Ferguson had sufficient respect for Wolves to field eight internationals in his starting line-up.

But, in the end, it only took 10 men to overcome the challenge of what could well be close to Mick McCarthy’s first-choice XI in a few weeks.

To Wolves’ credit, the margin of victory was only one goal and the visitors were never out of the game.

In addition, Michael Kightly, Kevin Foley, Jody Craddock and, in particular Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, made encouraging comebacks following injury.

On the whole, the players – the majority of whom had never played at Old Trafford – at least had the chance to familiarise themselves with the vast stadium that could have left them awestruck when there are points at stake in December.

It was a weird tie in that Wolves played a full part in a contest which rarely flickered in tempo or excitement.

Ultimately, it was McCarthy’s side left most disappointed and not just because of the result, which left them beaten by the Carling Cup holders in the clubs’ first meeting in the competition.

What was most galling about this Wolves performance was their strange lack of urgency and tempo, qualities normally so abundant in their play.

An understandably irritable McCarthy talked afterwards of a lack of devilment, zip, pace and belief about his side’s display, for which his best description was ‘bland’.

McCarthy admitted the lethargy could have been down to the introduction of the quartet returning from injury.

How much of that could be attributed to ring-rustiness is unknown but the team simply never touched the heights of the performance against Fulham.

It certainly wasn’t down to an intimidating atmosphere, despite the crowd of 51,116 being the biggest League Cup gate Wolves had played in front of since they won it at Wembley in 1980.

Herein lies the frustration for Wolves and it’s one we’ve already seen at Premier League level. Despite a below-par showing, they created chances to have clinched their place in the hat for the fourth round.

Wolves had the first one too when Ebanks-Blake, returning to the club where he started his career, turned Jonny Evans, but his left foot shot from the edge of the D flew inches over after Kightly’s pass.

The visitors were forced to defend as Christophe Berra – again impressive after his man of the match performance in the win over Fulham, blocked two shots from United’s best player of the night in Nani.

But Wolves took advantage of a tepid start to the game by United by breaking through former Red Devils midfielder David Jones, who cut inside Wes Brown and Evans only to produce a poor shot straight at keeper Tomasz Kuszczak.

After one-time Wolves loanee Darron Gibson chipped onto the roof of the net, Wolves broke again to produce the first flashpoint of the game – thanks to superb tenacity from Stefan Maierhofer.

The giant Austrian beat Evans in the air and then challenged Brown. The ball squirmed to Kightly, who ran at Fabio and, when the left-back lost his balance, he first handballed before grabbing the winger’s legs from under him to earn an undisputable red card as last man.

As so often happens when teams are reduced to 10 men, United rallied, and in fact, they assumed a greater urgency about their play while rarely ever coming out of first gear.

The resulting free-kick from the sending off saw Jones again go close as his curling effort was tipped over by Kuszczak.

But United improved and had chances to have snatched the lead before the break.

There was a scare for Wolves when Danny Welbeck charged down a clearance by Marcus Hahnemann only to see it gratefully roll to George Elokobi, who cleared.

A second successive dominant display from Berra kept Michael Owen largely quiet, but the ousted England international did manage to steal a yard to plant a header straight at Hahnemann from a cross by Nani, who gave Elokobi his busiest 90 minutes of the season.

Berra was like a magnet to repel United attacks and he twice blocked efforts from Michael Carrick.

And following one of Wolves’ best openings – a poor lob over from Jones after an awful slice by Gary Neville at the end of the first-half – Berra kicked off the second half by also heading over Kightly’s corner from two yards.

Wolves continued to concede ground and Gibson poked wide from the edge of the area after Foley failed to cut out Welbeck’s jinking run. From the other flank, Nani’s cross ended up bouncing against the outside of the post after pinballing off Marcus Hahnemann’s chest.

And the goal United were suddenly threatening arrived in the 66th minute.

What beautiful football it was too, as Welbeck side-footed home on the angle after a series of one-touch passes involving Carrick and Owen.

Wolves immediately attempted to hit back through re-invigorated substitute Kevin Doyle.

The Republic of Ireland international had four efforts in the last 20 minutes, two of which were serious – a fierce left foot low drive that forced Kuszczak into a diving save then a superb volley from Elokobi’s centre that fizzed millimetres wide.

Wolves were twice called on to defend again in the dying stages as Berra again blocked from substitute Josh King after Craddock slipped, while Hahnemann’s chest again came to the rescue from King’s fierce shot after a poor clearance from Craddock.

By Tim Nash.