FA Barclays Premiership
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
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| John O’Shea and Rio Ferdinand congratulate Ruud van Nistelrooy on his first-half goal. | |||
FA Barclays PremiershipFA Barclays Premiership
Old Trafford, Wednesday 29 March
Manchester United 1
Van Nistelrooy (45)
West Ham 0
Another record Old Trafford attendance witnessed Ruud van Nistelrooy return to United’s starting line-up to inspire a narrow 1-0 victory over West Ham with his 149th goal for the club. The win takes the Reds five points clear of Liverpool and nine points behind Chelsea.
The Dutchman struck on the stroke of half-time, the decisive moment on a relatively quiet evening in front of 69,522 supporters. Van Nistelrooy was one of five changes made by Sir Alex Ferguson from Sunday’s 3-0 win over Steve Bruce’s Birmingham.
Ruud, who has started the last five matches on the bench, was joined by Gerard Pique, Partric Evra, Darren Fletcher, Ji-sung Park in the starting line-up.
Pique, a 19-year-old central defender signed from Barcelona in 2004, made his first Premiership start at right-back in place of Gary Neville, who suffered a hamstring in training just two days after making his 500th appearance for the Reds on Sunday.
United started sloppily, with Matthew Etherington allowed space to volley, albeit over, from close range inside the first five minutes. Then Evra took an age to decide what to do with the ball deep in United’s half and gave away a corner.
West Ham were showed far more precision to their passing and guile in their attacks in the opening exchanges. Alan Pardew’s side had another corner moments later and Dean Ashton could have put the Hammers in front. He got a touch on the ball following Lionel Scaloni’s volley from 12 yards, but it went wide. Not a pretty start from the Reds.
But United were sparked into action when they had a dubious penalty claim turned down. It was the move that led to the appeal that was most pleasing, however. Ronaldo and Fletcher combined down the right to play the ball inside to Rooney. He nutmegged a defender to find Ronaldo’s continued run and the winger tumbled in the box before he could get his shot in. Contact from Danny Gabbidon was minimal, as was referee Graham Poll’s patience with the United players’ protests, which he sternly waved away.
It was the Portuguese winger that orchestrated United’s next effort on goal after 20 minutes. He was tripped mid-stepover by West Ham midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker 35 yards from goal, and he had Shaka Hislop scrambling to pick up his fumbled catch from the resulting, well-struck free-kick.
Five minutes later Rooney produced a pass of such breath-taking brilliance that it should have led to the opening goal. Doing the old look-one-way-pass-the-other trick he found Fletcher’s darting run into the box, but the Scot could only hit the side-netting.
It was all too much for Graham Poll. Struggling with a hamstring injury, he was replaced by the fourth official Martin Atkinson.
With ten minutes of the half remaining, United almost took the lead twice in two minutes through two centre-backs. First, Pique plucked up the courage to despatch a 25-yard, curling shot towards the top corner. Hislop, at full stretch, tipped it over the bar and from the resulting corner Nemanja Vidic emerged from the scramble in the box to strike a low, side-footed effort off the base of the post.
As the first half drifted into injury time, and with the deadlock not yet broken, United’s players may have thought their luck was out. But the breakthrough finally came from that man Ruud van Nistelrooy.
He had Park to thank after the Korean’s courageous run took him past Paul Konchesky before cutting the ball back for the Dutchman to side-foot in his 149th goal for the Reds. It hadn’t been his liveliest showing, but the ruthless frontman needs few invitations to hit the back of the net and he took this opportunity with aplomb.
United had the ball in the net again after 57 minutes when Ronaldo prodded the ball home from van Nistelrooy’s cross following good build-up work from Rooney and Park. But the linesman correctly judged that the ball had just crossed the byline as Ruud played the ball to Ronaldo.
The second half proved frustratingly quiet, with West Ham unable to open up United’s steady defence and the home side making hard work of adding to the 1-0 scoreline. But the match was almost treated to a Rooney wonder goal with 15 minutes left on the clock. Ronaldo went to the byline and cut the ball back to Rooney, who was 12 yards out. He looped the ball over Hislop but the bar denied him his 17th of the season, which would have equalled his tally for last season. Van Nistelrooy tried an acrobatic effort from the rebound, but Hislop comfortably saved.
Teddy Sheringham made a late appearance as a substitute. He is remembered fondly at Old Trafford for his sterling service between 1997-2001 and his part in the 1999 Treble-winning season, and was afforded a warm welcome just four days before his 40th birthday. But there were no late heroics from the former Reds forward.
The uneventful nature of second half continued with only sporadic United chances decorating a disappointing second 45 minutes. Substitutes Ryan Giggs and Louis Saha both saw efforts go past the post, but one goal proved to be all that was needed.
The Reds have now won their last ten home matches and the last seven league games. The impressive results continue, even if the performance here was not the prettiest. As Sir Alex’s second-placed side still possess a game in hand over third-placed Liverpool with seven games remaining, the Reds remain in the driving seat to finish as runners-up and claim automatic Champions League qualification.
Team Line-Ups
United: Van der Sar, Pique, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (Silvestre, 78), Ronaldo (Saha, 87), O’Shea, Fletcher (Giggs, 69), Park, Rooney, van Nistelrooy.
Subs not used: Howard (GK), Rossi.
Subs not used: Howard (GK), Rossi.
West Ham: Hislop, Scaloni (A. Ferdinand, 68), Gabbidon, Collins, Konchesky, Etherington (Sheringham, 81), Mullins, Reo-Coker (c) (Zamora, 81), Benayoun, Harewood, Ashton.
Subs not used: Walker (GK), Fletcher.
Subs not used: Walker (GK), Fletcher.
Attendance: 69,522 (Premiership record)
Report by Ben Hibbs at Old Trafford.
Retrieved from www.manutd.com 30th march 2006
