FRESH LEGS WILL HELP

Last updated : 12 September 2006 By Ed
Ferguson has said that the return of Rooney and Scholes will help the team against Celtic.

“Having Wayne and Paul available is a bonus for us there is no doubt about that because they are two fantastic players,”

“There is always a goal threat from them and that is important." he said.

And after last season's embarrassment he now believes last year's inexperienced team have the quality and experience to get through despite only adding only Carrick, with no Champions League pedigree, to the squad.

“You can't guarantee anything in this group with Celtic, Benfica and Copenhagen. Last year we had Lille and Benfica and we thought we'd be fine. But we didn't score enough goals.

“We didn't score against Lille or Villarreal. It will be different this year I can assure you.

"I would never have believed it if you had told me at the start of the group that we would finish bottom.

"When we looked at our group - Villarreal, Benfica and Lille - we thought we could take care of it. I was really disappointed with our performance last year, particularly losing 1-0 against Lille in Paris.

"We just lacked experience at vital times and we had six experienced players missing through injury in the early part of the season. Nonetheless, it was still disappointing. I don't think the players will want to be reminded of that.

"Nobody likes bad memories and good footballers always want to show that they don't want things like that to happen again.

"They should want to improve on that, particularly the young players.

"We've also got more experience this year and the likes of Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand have got more experience - while Gary Neville and Paul Scholes - have got great experience too."