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UTD match reports (inc. MOM) for season 2006/7
m4m - Fri, 29 Dec 06 :
7 mins vid highlights
MOTM : There's only one Ronaldooooooooooo
Ronaldo's instant hits make all the difference for United
Oliver Kay
Manchester United 3 Wigan 1
Remarkable, really, the difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, the Manchester United fanzine, United We Stand, devoted its front page to bidding good riddance to 2005, calling it an annus horribilis. A year on, their team are four points clear at the top of the Premiership and Sir Alex Ferguson will approach his 65th birthday on Sunday in the highest of spirits.
It will never all be sweetness and light at a time when many remain troubled at the size of the debt taken on by the club’s American owners, the Glazer family, but this was as close to a perfect day as it gets for United’s supporters at present. Chelsea slipping up at home, Liverpool losing, Leeds United falling deeper into trouble — not even news of an overdue win for Manchester City across the Pennines could destroy the feelgood factor inside Old Trafford.
Ferguson talked afterwards of the “elation” that had greeted Reading’s late equaliser against Chelsea, which came when United’s players were stretching their way through their pre-match warm-up.
Whether he was talking about his team or their supporters was not entirely clear, but, with Cristiano Ronaldo coming off the bench to inspire what seemed an inevitable victory over Wigan Athletic, there will be a growing feeling in the dressing-room, as well as on the terraces, that it is all falling into place for United.
With Ronaldo proving almost unplayable and others, such as Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra, growing in stature by the week, it hardly seems worth repeating that United are playing better football than Chelsea. Ferguson would say that they have been for most of 2006; of 34 Premiership matches since February, they have won 27, drawn four and lost only three, scoring 71 goals and conceding 22. In short, they have been in championship form, or as damn near to it, for almost a year.
There have been more demanding occasions in 2006 than this one, against a Wigan team with a famed inability to gain results against the Premiership’s elite but, on a day when Chelsea slipped up unexpectedly, this felt like it could prove to be a significant afternoon come May.
By then, Ronaldo might well have been crowned Player of the Year, with Didier Drogba, another whose worst excesses have occasionally outraged his fellow professionals since his arrival in England, his only real rival on recent evidence.
Ronaldo’s impact on United’s title challenge has been enormous. Yesterday, he was left on the bench initially by Ferguson, but after an uninspiring, goalless first half — an MUTV reporter had the temerity to call it “boring” — the introduction of Ronaldo changed everything. Within five minutes he had scored twice, a bullet header and a rebound from his own penalty, which was saved by Chris Kirkland, and United were home and dry.
“He changed the game,” Ferguson said. “He has been in great form and I think we needed a quick response in the second half.”
Scoring twice for the second successive game, Ronaldo stole the show and even his most celebrated team-mates are having to settle for supporting roles this season. Wayne Rooney has had his moments, but, with his goals coming in bursts, it is with his workrate that he is impressing.
The first half was poor, with Ferguson’s decision to rest Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs and Louis Saha in favour of the ring-rusty quartet of Wes Brown, Mikaël Silvestre, John O’Shea and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer resulting, unsurprisingly, in a loss of fluency.
Solskjaer had an early effort well saved by the admirable Kirkland, while Park Ji Sung cut inside to shoot just wide of the far post, but, with Rooney wasting United’s best chance, half-time arrived with Wigan’s clean sheet intact.
From the moment Ronaldo tore off his tracksuit top at the start of the second half, though, Wigan’s prospects seemed bleak. His first goal arrived within 67 seconds, as he escaped the attentions of Fitz Hall to head home Paul Scholes’s corner, and within another four minutes he had struck a second, reacting well to convert the loose ball after his own penalty, given after a foul by Gary Teale on Park, was saved by Kirkland.
There was no way back for Wigan after that, despite a couple of brave substitutions on the part of Paul Jewell, the Wigan manager, with Josip Skoko and David Cotterill sent into the fray. By the hour mark, it was 3-0, with Solskjaer racing away to beat Kirkland after a counter-attack that began with a towering header from Vidic and gained momentum thanks to forceful play from O’Shea and Rooney, the latter beating Emmerson Boyce to a header.
With the ball ending at Solskjaer’s feet, finishing was the easy part.
Rooney rattled the bar after that, but Wigan were to have the last word, Leighton Baines scoring from the penalty spot in stoppage time after David Wright tumbled a touch dramatically under Silvestre’s clumsy challenge. That soured things slightly for Ferguson, his team having kept only two clean sheets in their past ten matches, but he felt sufficiently confident afterwards to talk of resting more players when Reading travel north on Saturday.
Perhaps he feels he owes Steve Coppell, a distinguished United old boy, a favour after Reading’s surprise point at Stamford Bridge.
Given United’s form throughout 2006, though, the Reading manager is unlikely to find them as charitable as he did Chelsea yesterday.
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-4-2): E van der Sar — W Brown, N Vidic, M Silvestre, P Evra (sub: G Heinze, 71min) — D Fletcher (sub: C Ronaldo, 46), J O’Shea, P Scholes (sub: K Richardson, 62), Park Ji Sung — O G Solskjaer, W Rooney. Substitutes not used: L Saha, T Kuszczak
WIGAN ATHLETIC (4-1-4-1): C Kirkland — F Hall (sub: J Skoko, 60), E Boyce, M Jackson, L Baines — D Wright — G Teale (sub: D Cotterill, 53), A Johansson, K Kilbane, E Heskey — S Todorov Substitutes not used: T Cywka, D Landzaat, M Pollitt
Referee: M Riley
Star man
Cristiano Ronaldo
He might not have appeared until half-time, but Ronaldo transformed a disjointed United performance, scoring twice within five minutes of his introduction. Not quite at his beguiling, bamboozling best, but still by far the most influential player on the pitch.
Ups and downs?
Manchester United
Sir Alex Ferguson’s team have been by far the best in the Premiership so far and look equipped to stay top if they can maintain their form
HERE are the player ratings from the United v Wigan match:
UNITED
6 Van der Sar: Could have gone to the sales at the Trafford Centre he had so little to do
6 Brown: First start since Southend nearly two months ago but got back into action comfortably
8 Evra: Provided a consistent threat down the left and linked up well with Park
7 Vidic: Nothing in Wigan’s attack to cause the big Serbian any problems
7 Silvestre: A relatively easy one for the Frenchman to come back into after an inactive winter
6 O’Shea: His preference to nick balls in midfield rather than full blooded challenges was largely successful
7 Fletcher: A very busy performance from the Scot and some of his deliveries deserved to be put away
7 Scholes: Kept United ticking along nicely in his usual quite way
8 Park: Looked rusty at Villa but shook it off against Wigan. All action and a persistent irritation to Latics
7 Solskjaer: Still a master when you provide him with a chance even when he’s rusty!
7 Rooney: Touches were hit and miss and on another day could have had a few
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Subs:
8 Ronaldo (sub Fletcher 45): Gave United the finishing touch
5 Richardson (sub Scholes 61): Not really involved
5 Heinze (sub Evra 70): Easy 20 minutes
(Saha, Kuszczak not used)
Bookings:
United: None
Wigan: None
Referee: M Riley - Nothing to bother him. 7
Attendance: 76,018 (PREMIERSHIP RECORD)
Mour-in-(e)-yo are you listnin'
You betta keep our trophy glistnin'
We'll be back in May, to take it away
walking in a Fergie wonderland
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