SATISFIED FERGIE PRAISES SIDE
Sir Alex Ferguson was satisfied after Manchester United cruised past West Brom 3-0 at Old Trafford on Boxing Day.
The United boss felt Paul Robinson´s injury was a key factor as Wayne Rooney´s man-marker´s exit on a stretcher signalled the start of the scoring.
Darren Fletcher, clearly looking more at home in the centre of midfield rather than on the flank, where he has toiled, drew special praise from his manager.
"It was a convincing performance," he told Sky Sports. "We took time to get going today.
"Their tactics were pretty good, I thought, man-marking Rooney, then the boy was taken off and, from that moment, the door was open.
"We had started to change to adapt to that and Wayne started to drift and cause them problems. Ryan Giggs went to play through the middle so we may have been okay, you never know.
"Rio [Ferdinand] had waited a long time [but now has two goals in three league games] and the third goal was a marvellous move, a great cross from Alan [Smith] and a great finish from Ruud [van Nistelrooy].
"We just have to keep going, that´s the important thing for ourselves and all our fans - to win is the nature of our club. If you keep doing that, you never know.
"Obviously there´s a game on Wednesday, then Saturday and next Tuesday. I´ll freshen it up on Wednesday and change the team for the Saturday game.
"Confidence is a factor. No question about that. The team is starting to play well.
"Young Darren Fletcher, now he´s settled back - when he played so many games, I think it got to him as he´s still growing. I thought he was excellent today and the younger players are emerging from that bad spell very well."