Ince used to call himself The Guv’nor as he picked up
titles and cups aplenty in his pomp as a player in the red of
United. Soon he won’t even be The Gaffer. He has overseen the
Lancashire club’s slide into the drop zone after failing to win in
nine league games.
Now this stuffing, with Rovers’ own fans chanting ‘You
don’t know what your doing’ at Ince. The scoreline flattered
Rovers, who were totally outplayed last night with two of their
goals coming in the last six minutes when the game was already
up.
They were the fall guys as Tevez landed three
devastating blows to claim his first hat-trick in English football.
He forced an own goal to open the scoring, set up Nani for another
and grabbed three more of his own. As messages to the boss go, this
was as good as it gets for a first-team recall.
He has started just six league games so far as the
arrival of Dimitar Berbatov has nudged him off centre stage after
his 19 goals in United’s double last term.
Yet last night this terrier-like striker would not stop
chomping at the bit. Some top players cannot raise themselves for
these Carling Cup games. Tevez saw it as an opportunity — and took
it.
Now the team selection for Saturday’s visit of
Sunderland will be very interesting. What a problem for United
manager Alex Ferguson to have. While the side he sent out last
night may not have been United’s strongest XI, it was certainly a
line-up to be reckoned with.
Arsene Wenger stuck to his teen terrors on Tuesday but
came unstuck as Arsenal were knocked out by Burnley at Turf Moor.
Fergie’s team had a mixture of youth and experience with big names
like Anderson, Nani, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Tevez all present
and correct.
The best pre-match news for United fans was Paul
Scholes on the bench after more than two months out with a knee
injury.
STAR MAN - CARLOS TEVEZ (Man
United).
MAN UTD: Foster 6, R Da Silva 6,
Neville 5, Evans 6, O’Shea 6 (Evra 5), Nani 7, Gibson 7, Possebon 6
(Scholes 5), Anderson 7, Giggs 8 (Manucho 5), Tevez 9. Subs
not used: Kuszczak, Park, Vidic, Welbeck.
BLACKBURN: Robinson 5, Olsson 4,
Nelsen 5, Ooijer 4, Warnock 7, Treacy 4, Tugay 5 (Pedersen 5),
Mokoena 5, Emerton 4 (McCarthy 6), Derbyshire 6, Santa Cruz 5
Fowler 5). Subs not used: Brown, Villanueva,
Judge, Roberts. Booked: Nelsen.
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