Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted with the speed of Manchester
United's play in the second half as Wigan Athletic were beaten 4-0 at
Old Trafford.
Speaking on MUTV,
the manager praised his players for remaining in top gear and extending
the winning margin as last season's narrow title defeat to Manchester
City continues to frustrate him.
"It was a pleasing part," said Sir Alex, of the conviction to keep going forward with the points safely in the bag.
"Last year, we lost the league on goal difference and it won't happen again.
"I
thought the first half of the game never got started. Wigan were taking
a minute for every goal-kick and slowed the game down. They kept
possession well and are quite an aggressive team to play against, giving
a lot of fouls away and stopping the game that way.
"Once we got
the speed of the game right in the second half, it made a difference for
us as we became more aggressive in terms of getting the ball back and
making good tackles in midfield. That set a pattern with the crowd as it
got them up. Scoring the first goal is always important in these type
of matches and we ran out good winners."
Although disappointed
with Javier Hernandez's early penalty that drew a comfortable save out
of Ali Al-Habsi, Sir Alex was thrilled to see Paul Scholes grace another
landmark appearance with a goal.
"It wasn't a great penalty," the
boss confessed. "It can affect you a little bit in the sense you think
you're having a good start but have to start again. We had a lot of
strikes on goal in the first
half without scoring. Danny Welbeck, in particular, had five strikes on goal.
"In
the second half, we played the way we want to play and should play all
the time with pace, speed and very good penetration. It turned out to be
a good day for us.
"It's fantastic Paul scored - that is what we
always remember him for as a young player, ghosting into the penalty
box. Obviously, as he's got older, he doesn't need to do that as we
prefer him to play in central midfield but he scored on his 100th
appearance, 200th, 300th, 400th, 500th, not his 600th, but now on his 700th appearance and it's fantastic."
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