Manchester United's lack of a reliable finisher spared the dogged defenders of LKS Lodz a more harrowing experience at Old Trafford last night after Ryan Giggs had given United an early lead in their Champions League qualifier.

Although Alex Ferguson's team controlled large parts of the match they were unable to find the quality where it mattered most, namely in front of the LKS goal, until nine minutes from the end when Andy Cole headed in at the far post from Denis Irwin's centre.

Lodz marked tightly, with a sweeper Witold Bendkowski, were quick to intercept final passes, and dealt competently with some early crosses.

The feeling, however, soon passed. After seven minutes only alert covering by Rafal Pawlak denied Paul Scholes a chance to exploit the rebound after Nicky Butt and Cole had combined to send in Ryan Giggs for a shot parried by Boguslaw Wyparlo in the LKS goal. After 15, United were ahead, though.

The goal was simple, quick and cleanly executed. Gary Neville's long ball was headed on by Scholes and Giggs did the rest, outwitting Bendkowski before driving a firm shot low past Wyparlo.

Five minutes later Cole successfully took on Tomasz Kos on the right before seeing his cross-shot valiantly pushed away by the busy Lodz goalkeeper.

While aware of the danger of conceding a goal at home, United found little in the LKS attack to cause them immediate concern. The Poles put their faith in counter-attacking from entrenched positions but took a while to produce anything more threatening than speculative long shots.

It was fully half an hour before Peter Schmeichel was able to view a member of the opposition at close quarters, when Tomasz Cebula narrowly lost a race with the United goalkeeper to meet a through ball. The moment only briefly interrupted United's domination of the game.

Yet they needed to reflect their superiority with more goals. Another nearly arrived in the 34th minute when a corner from David Beckham was half-cleared to Jaap Stam whose neat chip beat Wyparlo but was headed out by Grzegorz Krysiak.

Later, one of Beckham's swinging free-kicks sailed close to the righthand post and as the first half ended, Scholes volleyed just wide from Roy Keane's centre. Lodz came in grateful to be only one down.

A Polish goal was highly unlikely but not impossible and a 1-0 lead is a 1-0 lead, no matter how much territorial advantage might accompany it. A dash down the right by Beckham at the start of the second half assured Old Trafford of United's renewed determination to score again but a poor centre renewed doubts about their ability to finish what they had begun.

Within minutes, moreover, Dridoslav Zuberek had outpaced United on the left before driving a rising shot into Schmeichel's large hands.

If nothing else, this was a warning to Ferguson's team about the possible perils of taking a slender lead to the middle of Poland in a fortnight's time.

Two chances fell Cole's way early in the second half but he was unable to exploit either of them. The United striker turned quickly on a ball from Irwin but was then blocked by Bendkowski, and when he used his pace to reach Giggs's low cross it was only to touch the ball wide.

The longer the game went on the more United put their faith in free-kicks around the penalty area, trusting that Beckham, Irwin or Giggs would eventually get one on target. With Lodz steadily soaking up everything United were attempting in open play, it looked the better bet.

Manchester United: Schmeichel; G Neville, Stam, Johnsen, Irwin; Beckham, Keane, Butt, Giggs; Scholes (Solskjaer, 81); Cole.

LKS Lodz: Wyparlo; Bendkowski; Pawlak, Krysiak; Omadiagbe (Jakubowski, 85), Kos, Niznik (Carbone, 57), Wyciskiewicz, Zuberek (Paszulewicz, 72); Cebula, Wieszczycki.

Referee: A Ouzounov (Bulgaria).