England striker Crouch - at £11million Pompey manager Harry Redknapp's only major summer signing so far - spent much of the last few seasons on the Liverpool bench but scored the Anfield club's winner against Chelsea in August 2006 with a trademark header.

Now he is set to line up for the current FA Cup holders against Sir Alex Ferguson's Barclays Premier League and European champions and insists: "Another one like that would do very nicely."

With Redknapp yet to bring in his other primary transfer targets such as Shaun Wright-Phillips, Younes Kaboul and Nicky Shorey, Crouch remains his biggest capture of the summer.

And the pressure is on the 6ft 7in front man - who has already played for and been sold by Redknapp in previous spells at Portsmouth and Southampton - to make a new all-English partnership work with last season's £7.5million signing Jermain Defoe.

For the moment, Crouch admits: "The Community Shield holds good memories for me. I headed the winner about 10 minutes from the end against Chelsea two years ago and it was doubly good because I had one disallowed in the FA Cup final against West Ham a few months earlier.

"I've come back to Portsmouth to further my career and it would be a great start to do something special at Wembley.

"It's going to be really hard against United even though they've got a few missing, but playing at Wembley lifts everybody.

"It's a fantastic occasion - just like a cup final and with all the new signings turning out."

In fact, neither Pompey nor United have made much of a splash in the transfer market this summer - despite all the talk about Ferguson buying Tottenham's Dimitar Berbatov and Redknapp stating he needs at least two or three new quality players to combat the extra demands of the UEFA Cup.

Apart from Crouch, he has been disappointed so far and there are some who suggest there has been a transfer freeze imposed at Fratton Park by Pompey's owner Sacha Gaydamak who funded team rebuilding to the tune of £35million-plus last term.

Earlier this week, Redknapp was quoted as saying he "accepts the situation. It is not a bottomless pit after all".

But he would not elaborate on that at a media briefing on yesterday.

His line-up tomorrow will not look much different from the FA Cup-winning side, apart from Crouch and the absence of Sulley Muntari, who is now with Inter Milan after just one season with Pompey in which he notched a penalty winner against United in the FA Cup quarter finals.

There was a kind of revenge for United, winning 2-1 when the clubs met on tour in Nigeria a couple of weeks ago, and they are due to clash again at Fratton on August 25 in the league.

But Crouch said: "I wouldn't really count that last result.

"The pitch was a bit bobbly out in Nigeria and neither side was really fit. We've done a lot since then and we'll see what happens."