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| Tuesday, December 27, 2005 |
| Man Utd 3 - 0 West Brom |
Man Utd
3
Final - Old Trafford Attendance: 67,972
Man Utd 3 - 0 West Brom
Paul Scholes (35)
Rio Ferdinand (45)
Ruud van Nistelrooy (63)
West Brom
0
Preview Match Gamecast Report
Updated: Dec. 26, 2005, 6:04 PM UK
Man Utd 3-0 West Brom
PA
Manchester United capitalised on an injury to Paul Robinson to maintain their Premiership pursuit of Chelsea with a 3-0 win over West Brom at Old Trafford.
Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand put United on top, before Ruud van Nistelrooy wrapped up victory with his 16th goal of another prolific campaign just after the hour mark.
But the result might have been different had it not been for a sickening collision between Robinson and Thomas Gaardsoe, which led to the excellent Albion defender being carried off with what appeared to be a severe neck injury.
Within a minute Scholes had belted home from the edge of the box, setting United on course for their seventh win in eight Premiership outings.
Robinson had been doing a superb marking job on Wayne Rooney - it was working like a dream until the full-back crashed into Gaardsoe.
Then United struck. Ferdinand set up the opener, surging into the West Brom box before cutting a pass back to Park Ji-sung. The Korean appeared to be being tugged back by Steve Watson but managed to keep his balance long enough to prod the ball into Scholes' path and the former England man drilled home his third goal of the season.
The game was into the sixth minute of stoppage time added on for Robinson's treatment when Ryan Giggs floated a corner to the edge of West Brom's six-yard area. Ferdinand's near-post run went unchallenged and neither Gaardsoe nor keeper Tomasz Kuszczak was able to prevent the angled header finding the net.
While Ferdinand's conversion to sharp-shooter is a relatively new phenomenon, van Nistelrooy has now been finding the net on a regular basis for the past five seasons and the Dutchman arrived on cue to nod home Park's excellent cross just past the hour mark. |
posted by Lawrence Yash Lee @ Tuesday, December 27, 2005   |
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