Liam Mackey, Soccer correspondent

FOR the neutrals, it’s a bit of a win-win situation, really.

On Saturday at Old Trafford, Burnley fans, with new boss Brian Laws at the helm, serenaded the home supporters with ‘We’ve got more money than you’. Their team lost 3-0.

Manchester United fans pretty much sang from the same hymn sheet, venting their fury at their own bosses before some of them let it be known that, as an act of martyrdom in the great struggle, they would be asking for Alex Ferguson to step aside. Their team won 3-0.

Now it’s the turn of United tonight to visit their old buddies – Carlos Tevez among them – at Eastlands where, you can be sure, chants of ‘We’ve got more money than you’ will be aired with even greater joie de vivre.

At any time, a Manchester derby has a potent appeal but the sense that the two clubs could be moving in opposite directions lends tonight’s Carling Cup semi final first leg meeting an additional edge. United’s problem may be thoroughly modern – and City’s solution equally so – but old-schoolers will take pleasure from the fact that something as out of fashion as a League Cup game becomes the battleground for bragging rights and more.

This season, the FA Cup has already rolled back the years thanks to Leeds knocking out Man U but while giant-killing won’t be on the menu over this two-legged affair, there is something refreshingly nostalgic about the Manchester neighbours going at it mano a mano, as it were, in one of the cups that used to cheer back when we were more familiar with hedge-schools than hedge-funds.

United might be the ones making the negative headlines just now but, lest we forget, the reigning Premiership champions remain just one point behind the leading challengers to their crown, a reminder that one club’s crisis is another club’s dream.

So, while United’s long-term future may be uncertain, the immediate pressure tonight is on the home side who won’t want to see a first defeat for Roberto Mancini at Everton become a blip that could turn into a slide.

With plenty of stellar talent on show – back on the bench Stephen Ireland might even get an outing – it all makes for a heady brew, one to delight the neutrals even if one half of the natives are bound to be left fuming.