Super Bowl XLII was supposed to be a contest in which history would be forged. Thanks to Lawrence Tynes and Osi Umenyiora, respectively the first Scot and Englishman to earn victory in America's greatest game, a footnote in the sporting annals of these isles was duly created.

Both contributed manfully as their New York Giants sacked the formbook within the University of Phoenix Stadium, the 17-14 defeat of New England denying the Patriots their anticipated coronation as American football's undisputed greatest team of all time.

Eighteen games unbeaten. Just one more pitfall to avoid to run the table and do what only the Miami Dolphins of 1973 had ever done before. The Giants, who had reached the championship tie the hard way by winning all three of their play-off ties away from the Big Apple, felt slighted and ignored amid the hubris.

In the final reckoning, they made noise of their own when it mattered, quarterback Eli Manning, the Bowl's Most Valuable Player, passing for two touchdowns in the second half as the Giants surged from behind to secure the franchise's third Vince Lombardi Trophy.

"The guys on this team and the run we've made, it's hard to believe," said Manning, who emulated his brother Peyton, the driving force behind the Indianapolis Colts' victory 12 months ago.

"We had great fight and the defence played outstanding. The drive at the end, there were so many clutch plays by so many guys. It is an unbelievable game and unbelievable feeling."

It was always going to take something superlative to knock the omnipotent Patriots off their perch and as matters progressed, the drama increased and the tension arose in tandem. Tynes converted a 32-yard field goal on a lengthy opening drive from the Giants and nearly made a tackle on his kick-off's return. And it took until the second quarter for the league's most prolific offense to hit the mark when Laurence Maroney stole in from a yard out to propel New England into a 7-3 half-time lead.

However New York's plan was simple. "We figured we'd be able to get pressure on quarterback Tom Brady all day," revealed Umenyiora.

The Patriots' passer was never allowed to rest easy and he found his options continuously closed off downfield. His protective line was bruised and battered and with his girlfriend, the model Gisele Bundchen, watching on, he struggled to feed his receiving corps with their usual diet of catchable despatches. Only Wes Welker, who equalled the Super Bowl record of 11 catches, found any room to manoeuvre.

Manning pushed the Giants into the lead once more with a piercing pass to David Tyree, which Tynes duly supplemented, but it was Randy Moss, an afterthought for most of this post-season, who pushed the Patriots back in front, finding himself wide open to gratefully grab Brady's six-yard bullet with 5:12 left.

The 71,101 crowd had earlier been treated to performances from Alicia Keys and Tom Petty, but the greatest entertainment of all was yet to come.

With less than 60 seconds remaining, Tyree hauled down a 32-yarder which put New York within sight of goal. And fitting it was Plaxico Burress, who caused waves earlier in the week by guaranteeing a Giants victory, who made good on his promise as Manning floated a 13-yard pass into his hands.

Once Tynes had calmly converted, Brady tried to pull off the impossible as the clock ticked down, but this time there was to be no last glorious chapter.

"I think we all could have done things better," lamented the NFL MVP. "I could have made better reads and made better throws. We will try to improve that moving forward next season. It doesn't take away from the 18 wins we had. Those were all great. We enjoyed all of those. It's just probably the one we wanted most which eluded us."

As the tickertape fell, the Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick, trudged down the tunnel, an ungracious loser. Not that the Giants cared much. "They came into this undefeated so far this season and any time a team does that, you have to give them respect," Umenyiora smiled. "But we were a team which was a little bit hungrier than them."

History will record it thus.