Early Rooney strike sends United into second place
Wayne Rooney scored the winner but left the field injured soon after
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Wednesday, 14, Jan 2009 11:03
An early strike from Wayne Rooney was enough to give Manchester United a 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic and send Alex Ferguson's side into second place in the league.
The three points allowed United to leapfrog Chelsea onto 44 points and they are now just two points behind leaders Liverpool with a game in hand.
It took United just 54 seconds to breach the Wigan defence as Cristiano Ronaldo danced past his marker on the right flank and centred the ball to Rooney who had a simple tap in from close range.
The elation of scoring for Rooney was soon replaced by concern as he was forced off the field with a hamstring injury five minutes later – to be replaced by Carlos Tevez.
The Argentinean almost made it 2-0 midway through the first half but he could not make the most of his good build up play.
Latics goalkeeper Chris Kirkland picked out John O'Shea who put Tevez though on goal with a well-placed header. Tevez was able to round Kirkland but then lost control of the ball and could not tuck it into the empty net.
Later Mario Melchiot had to dive in front of Paul Scholes to prevent another goal-bound effort from troubling the Latics' net.
Wigan's best chance fell to Ryan Taylor just before the break but his shot was way off target after finding himself unmarked in the United penalty box.
The visitors showed more determination in the second half as United sat back a little on their lead.
Edwin van der Sar had to be at his best to deny Maynor Figueroa as his volley looked bound for the top corner of United's goal.
As the game drew to a close Antonio Valencia almost equalised but his shot was always rising and van der Sar confidently let it go over his crossbar.
Dimitar Berbatov nearly made it 2-0 at the death but his curling effort from outside the box was just wide.
Although it was not a vintage performance from United the result still extended their league run to nine games without conceding and increased the pressure on their title rivals.