HAPPY NEW YEAR - MATCH VIEWS FROM THE BROADSHEETS

THE INDEPENDENT - GIGGS REVIVAL PUTS BORO IN THEIR PLACE

Middlesbrough put themselves on the map in 2004 with their first silverware in 128 years and their first foray into Europe, but on the opening day of 2005 they were put in their place by a free-flowing Manchester United.

There may only have been two places between the teams in the table, but on the pitch there was a huge gulf in class.

With his three main strikers unavailable - Wayne Rooney's three-match suspension for violent conduct meant he was as unselectable as the injured Ruud van Nistelrooy and Louis Saha - Sir Alex Ferguson started with just Alan Smith up front, but this was a remarkably fluid, ever-changing formation. Roy Keane dropped anchor around the centre circle while the four other midfielders sailed forward at will, chopping and changing position so swiftly and so frequently that Boro needed a global navigation satellite to keep track of them.

In the eighth minute, Cristiano Ronaldo cropped up on the left. He picked up Paul Scholes' half-blocked shot and rammed it against the foot of the post. Yet less than a minute later, it was United's other winger, Ryan Giggs, who turned up on the left. He exchanged passes with Smith and fired in a cross-shot which Mark Schwarzer could only parry to Darren Fletcher. He gleefully rolled home his first goal of the season.

It set the pattern for the match in which Middlesbrough were overrun on their own patch. The selection of the Brazilian Doriva ahead of Szilard Nemeth was designed to bring some ballast to their midfield, but the injured George Boateng proved irreplaceable. Boro were chasing phantoms, and never holding the ball long enough to pick up momentum. And with Mark Viduka also injured, the game but effete Joseph-Desiré Job never threatened the imperturbable Rio Ferdinand.

It was a day of reckoning for the team Steve McClaren is building at Middlesbrough but when the sums were added at the end, they did not stack. He has travelled far since taking the Boro job four years ago, but can he take it further? Last night’s defeat was comprehensive. Boro, the home team, did not force Roy Carroll to make one save.

You might argue that Alan Smith is Manchester United’s fourth striker but he was the best player on the pitch. It would be easy for Boro to believe this performance was a one-off, a touch of stage fright, but such a simple conclusion would be wrong. They were no more convincing at Birmingham a week ago and for all the praise bestowed upon the team, the whole remains less than the sum of the individuals.

Neither of United’s goals, the first from Darren Fletcher in the ninth minute and the second from Ryan Giggs 70 minutes later, were anything to write home about but that wasn’t the point. United controlled the match from beginning to end and even when they were forced to defend through the first 15 minutes of the second half, they weren’t exactly fretting.

Smith played as a solitary striker but there weren’t many occasions when he was on his own. When the team attacked, Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo appeared as from nowhere, Paul Scholes and Darren Fletcher got forward quickly and in almost every United attack throughout the first 20 minutes, the Boro penalty area was crawling with United bodies.

If there was a surprise it was that United’s speed and invention produced just one goal in that opening half. The breakthrough came after Giggs played the most wonderful one-two with Smith. When Mark Schwarzer parried the Welshman’s shot, Fletcher was where you expected him to be. One-nil to the visitors.

During United’s good period and pretty much throughout the game, Smith’s was the performance one most admired. When the big-name strikers return from injury and suspension, you sense Sir Alex Ferguson will not easily forget just how valuable his Leeds recruit has been.

Since departing Old Trafford in 2001 Steve McClaren has got the better of his Manchester United mentor four times. Yet master prevailed over pupil on Teesside last night as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side kept their slim title hopes alive.

A 2-0 win – goals from Darren Fletcher and Ryan Giggs sealed a comfortable win – enabled United to maintain their grasp of the coat-tails of Chelsea and Arsenal.

It would take a remarkable failure from their two chief rivals to bring the Premiership trophy to Old Trafford this summer, but United have refused to abandon an unlikely quest. Ferguson’s men arrived in the North East boasting seven wins from their previous eight fixtures but, despite another positive result, United remain nine points off the pace.

That United emerged at the Riverside Stadium without £60 million worth of striking talent – Louis Saha and Ruud van Nistelrooy remained on the treatment table while Wayne Rooney was suspended – did not help their cause. But they made light of their perceived problems.

The visitors wasted no time in showing they have yet to surrender their title challenge. Cristiano Ronaldo struck a post after eight minutes — the Portuguese international somehow avoiding an offside flag after latching onto Paul Scholes’ deflected shot – and the breakthrough came just 60 seconds later.

Alan Smith was the architect, releasing Giggs with a shrewd pass. The Welshman’s drive was parried by Mark Schwarzer and Fletcher, presented with the simplest of tasks, made no mistake. Boro’s hopes of restoring parity were stymied by United’s accomplished passing game.

THE OBSERVER - FLETCHER AND GIGGS TURN ON THE STYLE

Anything their London rivals can do, they had better be sure that Sir Alex Ferguson will browbeat Manchester United into doing it better. Without a number of their star assets, goals from Darren Fletcher and Ryan Giggs brought third-placed United a victory of almost shocking ease at fifth-placed Middlesbrough, a team against whom they have struggled in recent seasons.

If Arsenal or Chelsea had hoped their successes earlier in the day would put unbearable mental stress on the team who have finally emerged as the clear third runners in the Premiership title chase, United's response was impressive - awesomely so - and swift.

With Wayne Rooney suspended and Ruud van Nistelrooy and Louis Saha injured, Alan Smith was Ferguson's last striker standing, but the United manager did not take those absences as an excuse for caution. Rather, Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo pushed up from wide midfield positions, effectively giving United a three-man front line and an abundance of attacking threat and confidence.

Inside two minutes, Stewart Downing's teasing cross offered brief promise for Boro, Joseph-Désiré Job just missing contact at the far post, but then United took control, leading to a ninth-minute goal for Darren Fletcher. It came from superb interplay between Smith and Giggs and the latter's shot was parried by Mark Schwarzer directly into the path of the Scotland midfielder, who rolled his first goal of the season into the open net. There has been a feeling within the United camp in recent years that Boro save their best and most combative football for meetings with them - a view borne out by the fact that Boro have won four and United only three of the past eight meetings. But this time, United were determined not to be second best in the physical battles.

Certainly, referee Alan Wiley did not endear himself to the home support by allowing United to stamp their authority physically on the game. He was even less popular when, just before the opener, he allowed Ronaldo to advance from a clearly offside position and strike the foot of a post.

But this was a United team who, after dropping only four points from their past nine league games since defeat at Portsmouth in October, are hitting superlative form - amazingly so, considering their list of absentees.