Sir Alex Ferguson admitted his side's lightning start to
the second half provided the platform for victory over
Fulham.
After a frustrating first period in which Fulham stifled the Reds'
attacking play and provided scares at the other end, Wayne Rooney
needed under 30 seconds of the second period to turn in Nani's
cross and end the Cottagers' stubborn resolve.
"Fulham made us work because they've got good possession of the
ball, they have composure and experience on the ball and they made
us chase all over the pitch, particularly in the first half," Sir
Alex told MUTV.
"We had some good pieces of play in the first half and their
goalkeeper made some fantastic saves, but we had to speed up the
play. Murphy and Baird were completely in control in midfield and
we had to hurry them up and make the game a bit quicker. The start
to the second half was crucial and we got a good one to put us
in a good position. After that our confidence grew."
While Rooney's opener was the all-important goal, his second strike
six minutes from the end of normal time was the most aesthetically
pleasing for the United manager - not least for the approach work
by Dimitar Berbatov, who rounded off the scoring late on.
"The second was the star goal really," he said. "The work by
Berbatov was fantastic football and he just laid it on a plate for
Wayne, who took it well. He (Berbatov) is intelligent, he
has good composure on the ball and he adds to the team all the
time. The making of the second goal was absolutely superb. It was
very important (for him to score later), because he had a few
opportunities, but he took one, and that's important."