Not exactly vintage Manchester United, but Sir Alex Ferguson's side still managed to leave Bordeaux feeling hungover.

Unlike the fine wines from Bordeaux, United have not got better with age and once again they failed to hit the heights they regularly attained last season on their way to winning the Champions' League.

A year ago the United fans were left drooling after watching their side dispatch Inter Milan 2-0 in the quarter-final first leg at Old Trafford.

This display was nowhere close to that and United needed two flashes of skill from Ryan Giggs to keep them on course for a place in the last eight.

Giggs put United ahead with a well-taken goal on 42 minutes before he supplied the cross which allowed Teddy Sheringham to head home the simplest of second goals five minutes from time.

But United made heavy work of their second Group B victory and they might have been embarrassed if Bordeaux had shown more composure in front of goal.

United are now second with six points, one point behind Fiorentina who beat Valencia in the other group game.

Kick-off had been put back 45 minutes to 8.30pm after a serious road accident on the M60 delayed the arrival of thousands of fans at Old Trafford.

When the action eventually did get under way, United started without three key players who had been expected to feature.

Ferguson's confident claims that Dwight Yorke and Paul Scholes would recover from injury turned out to be grossly exaggerated.

Yorke was sidelined by his thigh problem and Scholes was ruled out with a hip complaint, while the third player surprisingly absent was Mark Bosnich, who was dropped to the bench.

Ferguson obviously felt he could afford to weaken his side with one eye on Saturday's Premiership showdown with Gerard Houllier's rapidly-improving Liverpool.

However his team selection was not that big a gamble given Bordeaux's form this season.

They have been a pale shadow of the side which won the French championship last season and they are sixth this time round - 17 points behind leaders Monaco.

In Europe they have managed just three wins in their eight games and they had not scored in their four previous games.

Drop the second syllable from their name and that just about sums up how most spectators have felt watching Bordeaux in their last few European games.

They started positively against United, but the Treble winners soon pushed them on to the back foot.

Denis Irwin played the ball up to Giggs, who exchanged possession with Sheringham, who was making his first Champions' League start in 18 months, before the Welshman shot weakly at Ulrich Rame in the visitors goal.

Andy Cole then tried a shot from the edge of the area, but he failed to connect with the ball cleanly and his mishit effort went wide.

Corentin Martins then fouled Irwin in David Beckham territory 20 yards out on the left. Up stepped the England star and he whipped the ball over the Bordeaux wall only to see his effort come back off the crossbar.

United were not having it all their own way and Lilian Laslandes and Sylvain Wiltord were causing the home side problems with their pace.

From one swift Bordeaux attack down the left, Jerome Bonnissel fed Laslandes, who in turn found Wiltord and it needed a robust challenge from the backtracking Keane to break up the move.

Normal service was resumed at the other end and the twisting and turning Beckham forced Rame to make a fine stop at full stretch before the Bordeaux goalkeeper was called into action again to save Cole's volley from Giggs' perfect cross.

It seemed only a matter of time before United would score and sure enough they did after 42 minutes.

Beckham sent over a teasing cross to the six-yard box where Giggs touched home his fifth goal of the season and his first of this Champions' League campaign.

Bordeaux began the second half intent on clawing their way back into the match and Herve Alicarte gave United a scare when he headed wide from a free-kick.

Beckham then nodded Alicarte's header away as he stood guard at the near post for a Bordeaux corner.

The French outfit should have equalised on 58 minutes when they caught the United defence trying to play offside.

Wiltord played Laslandes through on the right and when he returned the ball to his strike partner, the French international shot into the side netting with the goal at his mercy.

Bordeaux might have been reduced to 10 men midway through the second half when Giggs played in Keane only for the Irishman to be felled by Rame on the edge of the area. Referee Hartmut Strampe took a good hard look before giving a free-kick and booking Rame.

Bordeaux still had to survive Beckham's free-kick and Rame was grateful just to punch his curling effort away for a corner.

The visitors had another narrow escape a minute later when Alicarte misjudged a cross and the ball fell to the unmarked Cole three yards out from Cole.

The United striker, with 19 goals to his name this season, brought the ball down but made a complete hash of his shot and a relieved Rame gathered his pathetic shot.

United spurned yet another gilt-edged chance when Nicky Butt sent Keane racing through only for the skipper to shoot straight at Rame.

United gave the scoreline some respectability in the 85th minute when Giggs crossed for Sheringham to nod home from close range his first European goal since that unforgettable night in Barcelona.

Teams:

Man Utd: Van Der Gouw, G. Neville, Stam, Silvestre, Irwin, Beckham, Butt, Keane (Fortune 87), Giggs (Solskjaer 88), Cole (P. Neville 81), Sheringham.

Subs Not Used: Bosnich, Cruyff, Berg, Wallwork.

Booked: Giggs, Irwin.

Goals: Giggs 42, Sheringham 84.

Bordeaux: Rame, Grenet, Afanou, Alicarte, Bonnissel, Micoud, Martins (Ziani 65), Pavon, Diabate, Laslandes, Wiltord.

Subs Not Used: Richert, Saveljic, Rouviere, Zanotti, Batlles,Feindouno.

Booked: Rame, Alicarte.

Att: 59,786

Ref: H Strampe (Germany)