Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Manchester United

Scholes Scores

Paul Scholes scored a landmark goal to give Premier League Champions Manchester United a crucial (if unconvincing) three points against division struggliers Wolves at Molineux. The United legend’s 100th league goal for the club returned them to the top of the league.


It was a twist of a somewhat ironic nature that presented itself to Sir Alex prior to the game in terms of available players; while he was able to field the clubs’ Champions League winning defence for the first time in almost 18 months, he was severely restricted in attacking options. Wayne Rooney’s decision to play in midweek for England on a heavily criticised Wembley pitch lead to a reported aggravation of a knee complaint and added United’s leading scorer to a list of absentees that included Ryan Giggs, Anderson, Michael Owen and Owen Hargreaves.

With such an impressive array of creative talent sidelined chances were likely to be at a premium against a team fighting for their lives and it made for an uncomfortable 90 minutes for both sets of supporters. Neither manager will make an apology for that – indeed, after the game, Sir Alex maintained that his side had played good football at times while Mick McCarthy lamented missed chances, and at the business stage of the season it was probably widely expected that this fixture was never likely to present a feast.

Of the first half chances, both sides helped themselves to a couple of decent shouts – after eight minutes, Antonio Valencia created space before driving into the side netting, and on the quarter hour Nani’s free kick got through the wall to Darron Gibson. The Irish midfielder was to squander later openings but did well to react and try to connect with the ball. The shot went wide although there was half a shout for a penalty due to what could have been deemed excessive handling.

Before the break, Wolves created two good opportunities in the space of 3 minutes. First of all, former United trainee David Jones hit a shot that was deflected helpfully into Van der Sar’s waiting hands, before Steven Ward headed a Jarvis cross straight at the veteran goalkeeper. Both chances were clear openings; both misses were greeted with a collective sigh of relief from the visiting faithful, who, through their colourful protests, had probably created a better spectacle off the pitch than the one that was being provided on it.

If the first half was forgettable, the second was just unpleasant. Patrice Evra’s double half chance from a Gibson pass was, other than substitutions for the Champions of Neville and Diouf for Brown and Gibson, the only notable event until the scoreline was finally affected. Paul Scholes played the ball wide to Valencia, whose cross was snuffed out by the defence, only to be met by Nani who had crept out of position in the knowledge that with Park limbering up, he was due to be replaced. Nani’s pass found its way to Scholes – and he used all of his experience to evade a challenge and coolly finish, to relief that was almost tangible from his reaction, though typically clearly more for the meaning of the goal in the circumstances than the personal achievement he had reached.

Had Mame Diouf been more confident or less ring rusty there may have been more to follow; two gilt edged chances went begging before a home substitute found himself with far more important retrospective recriminations. Michael Carrick was guilty of inexplicably surrendering possession in the area – in injury time! – casually giving the ball away during a defensive melee. The ball was played to Sam Vokes who somehow, with the goal at his mercy, fired the ball way over the bar. Any hopes of a “there there son” were extinguished when he went on to head another decent chance wide and in the process end Wolves’ chance of a result.

The misses – the first, in particular – represented a stark contrast to the teams respective plights. It would be difficult to reasonably argue against United deserving the victory but at the same time Wolves barely deserved to lose in terms of their commitment; when you think of the league in the fierce way it has been competed this year and the potential that miss has to effect the difference between survival and relegation it would take a thick skinned person to not feel a degree of sympathy.

It wasn’t pretty, to say the least, but taking into account the list of those missing (Darren Fletcher was also left unused) the performance will be discounted and filed under “one of those games you need to win”.

Ratings : van der Sar 7, Brown 6 (Neville 6), Ferdinand 7, Vidic 7, Evra 7, Valencia 7, *Scholes 8, Gibson 5 (Diouf 6), Carrick 6, Nani 5 (Park 5), Berbatov 7

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