CRACKS PAPERED OVER

Sir Alex Ferguson had asked his players to demonstrate their togetherness and there was something telling about the way every goal last night was followed by a huddle of all their outfield players. Only Edwin van der Sar stayed back on a night when Manchester United showed that, even if they have to accept Chelsea's gold-lined hegemony of English football, they are determined to prolong the argument.

It was a performance that shimmered with menace, when United recovered from a slow start to rediscover their fluent old selves and a sense of harmony was restored between the crowd and the team. Perhaps inevitably Wayne Rooney, El Bootle, was the catalyst, with two splendid goals but there were plenty of other highlights to invigorate the beleaguered Ferguson, not least Rio Ferdinand's first goal for the club on his 140th appearance. Ruud van Nistelrooy completed the rout from the penalty spot as United recorded only their ninth league victory at home in the whole of 2005.

Perhaps, in hindsight, Paul Jewell will reflect that on his 200th league game in charge of Wigan he had been too daring by operating with three strikers. This was Wigan's first-ever encounter with United and, just as Everton exposed Ferguson's men with incisive counter-attacking thrusts on Sunday, Jewell set out to catch them on the break.

The tactic worked well throughout the opening exchanges but just as the first groans were beginning to emanate from Old Trafford's vertiginous stands United began to emphasise the gulf in status between the clubs. It was their first prolonged spell of pressure, resulting in two goals in five minutes to precipitate their most impressive victory this season.

The night thereafter became an exercise in damage limitation for a Wigan side that have now lost five successive league matches. In United's next attack Pollitt had to race from his line to deny Rooney but, having squandered a relatively easy chance, United's No8 then scored a goal that only a select few would be capable of.

Early in the second half, with an open goal gaping, Rooney thudded the ball against the bar after Pollitt had turned Gary Neville's low cross into his path. Yet, undeterred, the 20-year-old continued to torment Wigan's defence. When he ran clear to make it 3-0, 10 minutes into the second half, his dinked shot over the oncoming Pollitt was executed brilliantly.

Van Nistelrooy scored his 14th goal of the season after Pollitt clattered into him. Ferguson had been taunted early in the first half by Wigan chants of "sacked in the morning" but he finished the night with a triumphant wave to the crowd. If his Millwall mantra of "no one likes us, we don't care" was intended to unite the players, it was a ploy that paid instant dividends.

The Telegraph

On a night when relations between Manchester United and the outside world sank to their steeliest, here was a reminder that this is a club who can rise above the personal vendettas of their manager.

This was only Wigan's second appearance at Old Trafford - the first had been an FA Cup replay against Port Vale in 1969 - and by selecting three strikers Jewell gave notice that his side would not be overawed, although too often they were overwhelmed.

Perhaps because Manchester United had made their worst start to a season at Old Trafford since 1992, when the stadium did not carry the forbidding aura it was to take on later in Ferguson's reign, the Wigan manager may have fancied his chances. However, after a quarter of an hour of this contest 4-3-3 had concertinaed into a frantic 4-5-1 that was scarcely able to cope with Manchester United's spearing attacks through the centre.

Before the scoreboard on the Stretford End had registered an hour gone, Wigan might conceivably have conceded eight instead of the three United did score. In 1969 they had been in the Northern Premier League and sometimes last night it appeared that defensively they still were.

Jewell knows that however well Stephane Henchoz, Arjan de Zeeuw and Matt Jackson have done, there is a lack of pace at the heart of their defence and this was a weakness Ferguson was determined to exploit.

Again, Jewell would have cause to question his defenders. Rooney squandered more obvious chances - somehow striking the crossbar when presented with an empty net early in the second half and before that when a cross from Giggs gave the striker the time and space to place his shot - but what followed was a demonstration of the man's strength and desire. Having slipped in the area with the ball at his feet, he managed to get up, muscle the ball past Jackson and Baines and beat Pollitt at the near post.

Van Nistelrooy had been denied by the exceptional Pollitt, who had once been on United's books, from point-blank range before sending a deft little pass to send Rooney clean through.

His nerveless finish ensured that, however temporarily, the old certainties and the old scorelines returned to Old Trafford.

The Times

A most convincing victory of the season will be enough to secure a rare batch of favourable headlines for Manchester United, but it would not be wise to expect Sir Alex Ferguson to extend his heartfelt thanks to the Fourth Estate. After renewing the siege mentality so beloved at Old Trafford, his players responded with fitting defiance, although whether this is crisis averted or postponed remains to be seen.

In thrashing Wigan Athletic, United restored equilibrium to a season spiralling from Ferguson’s control after their early departure from Europe and wretched inconsistencies in domestic football. They have returned to second place in the Barclays Premiership, where they are nine points shy of Chelsea, on whom their irascible manager can now focus his aggression.

In that regard, they face difficulty. The context for their recent travails are the nine league victories that they have mustered at home during 2005 — Chelsea have accumulated a similar number since August — but this was a reply of sorts to the naysayers. That said, they will seldom meet more accommodating opponents than Wigan (Mike Pollitt, their excellent goalkeeper, excepted), whose inclination to attack proved their undoing.

United were grateful for an unlikely hero in Rio Ferdinand, who, in his 140th appearance for the club, opened the scoring with a debut goal. Brio was provided by Wayne Rooney, whose two strikes were breathtaking and irrepressible and there was even a penalty won and converted by Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Wigan’s heaviest defeat since November 2003 would have resembled a massacre had Pollitt, who was once on United’s books, not been in superhuman form, but Paul Jewell demanded a wider perspective. He pointed out that Bolton Wanderers had lost six league games in succession last season but still qualified for the Uefa Cup. For Wigan, the run stretches to five, but they now enter a sequence of less arduous fixtures.

Jewell’s 200th league game as the club’s manager was also their first confrontation with United and while the result was poor, their presence in Manchester possessed the buzz of a genuine occasion. The side did not, but the noise and feeling lasted; particular glee was taken in reminding their sullen hosts about their premature departure from the Champions League. “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” was another favourite.

While United fans squirmed, their team were more enterprising, although a series of fine saves by Pollitt left them to suffer a spasm of hesitancy before Ferdinand and Rooney soothed their disquiet. It was to Wigan’s credit that they refused to bulk out their defence, preferring an adventurous style, but while it earned them scuffed half-chances for Henri Camara, it also invited danger.

Pollitt separated Wigan from humiliation, even if their application almost brought Alan Mahon a consolation. Pollitt was to deny Van Nistelrooy again, yet the Dutchman exerted a measure of revenge when he provided the pass that allowed Rooney to gallop from midfield in the 55th minute. Having previously sent the ball glancing off the crossbar from three yards, Rooney summoned an immaculate chip.

Pollitt’s evening was to end in annoyance, however. In the 69th minute, he darted from his line to intercept a through-pass from Giggs and found Van Nistelrooy, who was returning from suspension, in fragile form. Without much evidence of contact, the striker tumbled over Pollitt’s body, but rose quickly enough to convert the penalty that followed. The scoreline and Rooney were the nearest approximations to United pomp.