Sir Alex Ferguson believes United made significant progress
towards the Barclays Premier League title by beating Middlesbrough
on Saturday.
The Riverside Stadium has been a difficult ground for the Reds
in the recent past, even last season when Gareth Southgate’s men
caused the champions to drop two points. But there seemed little
danger of a repeat once Ryan Giggs scored the first goal after 25
minutes.
“Getting in front was the key to it,” said Sir Alex.
“I thought we’d have a great chance if we got in front because
Middlesbrough are a young side, they’re at the bottom and nerves
come into play when they’re playing Manchester United in that
situation.
“They had to chase the game and that only opened the game up for
us really.”
Although the victory looked easy from the sidelines, Sir Alex
insists his players had to put in the graft against a home side
grappling for points at the wrong end of the table.
“I think it was a very good performance in a sense that the
players all worked their socks off,” he said.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult type of game because of
the position Middlesbrough are in at the moment. We had to
withstand the battle – there were a lot of crosses into the box
early on – but once we got hold of the ball I thought we always
looked a danger.”
United’s best use of the ball brought a second goal six minutes
into the second half when Ji-sung Park latched onto Wayne Rooney’s
reverse pass and lashed a fine shot into the bottom right-hand
corner. It capped another industrious performance from the
Korean.
“He’s clever, he knows when to time his runs, he knows where
space is,” said Sir Alex.
“He’s been fantastic this season. We just had to give him a rest
after he’d been over in Korea for two international games, when he
came back a bit jaded. We gave him two weeks off and now he’s back,
looking great and fresh.”
The Reds are in a great position now, needing only seven of the
remaining twelve points on offer to put the title beyond
Liverpool’s reach.
“It’s a big step forward, with only four games left now,” said
Sir Alex.
“I keep saying it’s about whittling the games away. Eventually
there are no games left and hopefully we’ll be in that position at
the top of the league.”