ONE day earlier, in the same city, the Reds had thrashed the Blues despite being behind for the entire season and enduring a torrent of criticism.

Back in Manchester, Ed Miliband was clearly confident that politics can repeat the footballing Manchester derby and reward his team for running into form at the right moment.

Remember the Labour leader's disastrous conference speech - also in the northern city - when he forgot to mention the deficit once and prompted chatter that he could be sacked?

Well, it was a different story yesterday, as a relaxed Mr Miliband took on his critics, spoke fluently, cracked jokes and won praise from almost all watching commentators.

The FT's verdict was that he had “never sounded more prime ministerial”, while the BBC's Nick Robinson said: “It was one of the most powerful speeches I've seen him make.”

Yet it should have been a tricky task, because Mr Miliband chose to fight on Labour's weakest ground - the question of which party is trusted to run the economy and balance the books.

Riskily, he made it his central promise that “everything in this manifesto is funded, the deficit will be cut every year, the books will be balanced and the national debt will be falling”.

Months earlier - maybe one week earlier - there would have been laughter, but, in recent days, astonishingly, the Conservatives have created a vacancy for the party of economic responsibility.

Suddenly, it is David Cameron's team on a spending binge, on the health service, on inheritance tax, on the railways - giving Mr Miliband an open goal.

On every election programme, Conservative ministers face sarcastic taunts of 'where's the Magic Money Tree, then'?

That is why Mr Miliband hit home when he called the Tories “the irresponsible party”, adding: “No offence to the Green party but they're making the Green party look fiscally credible.”