Freddy Eastwood's free-kick sent holders Manchester United crashing out of the Carling Cup in a famous 1-0 win for Southend at Roots Hall. The Shrimpers striker, who is a lifelong Reds fan, struck the decisive blow with a superb free-kick midway through the first half.
The goal proved enough to earn the Shrimpers one of the most famous nights in their entire history against a Red Devils line-up containing 10 full internationals, including Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.
But the real hero of the night was Southend keeper Darryl Flahavan, who produced a hat-trick of stupendous saves, all of which denied Ronaldo who, just like Rooney, tried his heart out but could not prevent Southend recording a shock win that took them into the last eight for the first time in their history.
It was a serious jolt for Ferguson, who only 24 hours ago celebrated an amazing two decades at the Old Trafford helm.
Throughout the past week, Ferguson has attempted to deflect all the praise and plaudits for his amazing achievements at Old Trafford by insisting he was more concerned with the future than the past.
As such, and given they had come so close to humiliation at Crewe in the previous round, it was no real surprise to see Rooney and Ronaldo in the Scot's starting line-up as the Red Devils looked to book a quarter-final place for the third time in four years.
Although precisely 43 league places separated the Premiership leaders from the Championship basement boys, a strong start from the hosts could also have been anticipated. Ferguson though presumably did not expect it to last the entire length of the first half.
Jamal Campbell-Ryce was the initial worry, darting down the right flank with menace while not quite managing to find a clinical final ball.
But it was Eastwood who soon took centre stage, showing the talent which persuaded Derby to bid £1million for his services in the summer.
When David Jones chopped Campbell-Ryce down 25 yards out, it was Eastwood who sent the free-kick searing into the top corner beyond the grasp of Tomasz Kuszczak.
It was Eastwood's 10th goal of a stellar season and a capacity crowd, who have not seen their team record a league win since mid-August, erupted, sensing a shock of seismic proportions, caring not a jot this is supposed to be the secondary domestic cup competition, and very much fourth on United's list of priorities.
Jones came agonisingly close to snatching an immediate leveller when his skidding left-footed shock clipped the base of a post with Shrimpers keeper Darryl Flahavan beaten.
Flahavan had dealt comfortable enough with United's sporadic goal threat, most of which came through Rooney, but the fingertip save he produced to deny Ronaldo's instinctive 25-yard drive was world class.
Ferguson felt sufficiently concerned to forgo his seat in the directors' box to make his way down to the visitors dugout and it was not long before he was involved in a heated exchange with the fourth official, although the precise nature of his complaint was unknown.
If Flahavan had been relatively inactive before the interval, he made up for it at the start of the second half as his personal duel with Ronaldo stepped up a notch.
First, the Portugal winger tried his luck with a snapshot which Flahavan managed to push away.
Then Ronaldo let fly with the type of stinging free-kick which has become his trademark this season but, again, the Southend keeper was equal to the task.
United laid siege to the Southend goal for the final 20 minutes but too often Rooney and Ronaldo tried to force a way through on their own and the visitors, marshalled superbly by Spencer Prior, a League Cup winner from his Leicester days, were able to keep them at bay.
The nearest the Red Devils came to an equaliser was through Gabriel Heinze, whose 20-yard shot seemed destined for the corner of Flahavan's goal but instead flew just wide of his left-hand post.
