MATCH VIEWS FROM THE BROADSHEETS

THE INDEPENDENT - SCHOLES IS SHARP WITH SCISSORS

Paul Scholes has never been comfortable when the spotlight has swung in his direction, and you can imagine him squirming when he was being described as one of the best midfield players in the world last summer. But to be fair to the Manchester United player, he has done a good job of playing the praise down.

A mixed European Championship was followed by his international retirement, being put in the shade by the brouhaha surrounding Wayne Rooney, and performances so jaded at the start of the season that questions were being asked as to his appetite for football. Well, he looked hungry enough yesterday. A much improved performance against Newcastle United last Sunday was followed by a match-winning one against Charlton Athletic at Old Trafford yesterday and Scholes, who was 30 on Tuesday, even rediscovered the habit - in his 300th Premiership game - that has always stood him apart as a midfield player: scoring.

You had to go back to the FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal last spring - 20 games ago - for the last time he had scored in a United shirt, but yesterday he popped up to grab a beauty. Darren Fletcher's cross was less than perfect for his run but he turned that into a virtue, hooking the ball from behind him with a flying scissors-kick. "It's been a long time coming," Scholes said. "And it's a relief. In the last couple of weeks I've had chances here and there so I felt I was getting closer, and thankfully it's come."

Ferguson had plenty of reason to be satisfied in what was his 999th game as manager of United, because if he could have ordered a warm-up for Tuesday's Champions' League match against Olympique Lyonnais, this would have done nicely. Charlton have never won a Premiership game against United, and yesterday they never looked likely to halt that miserable run. They packed midfield in the hope of a hit-and-run raid, and once that had failed when Ryan Giggs put United ahead after 41 minutes there was no Plan B. With five minutes to go they had managed only one off-target shot, and even though they increased that to three as United took the foot off the accelerator completely, they did not force Roy Carroll to make a single save.

This, the 999th match of Sir Alex Ferguson's reign as Manchester United manager, must surely have been among the easiest. It was so easy that, when the tiny minority of United supporters who could be bothered to sing asked Fergie to give them a wave 10 minutes from the end, he obliged. Which meant that he had taken more exercise than his goalkeeper: Roy Carroll might as well have spent lunchtime having lunch.

So who should we blame for the sort of atmosphere in which you hesitate to open a packet of crisps for fear the noise will disturb people around you? Not United, who calmly took the opportunity to gain points on Arsenal and rest in readiness for the visit of Lyons on Tuesday which, with qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions League at stake, offers Ferguson the prospect of a proper celebration. Alan Curbishley's Charlton, having conceded four goals at Bolton and Manchester City, had no wish to leave these parts even more soundly beaten, and their objective was achieved.

Going back through Sir Alex Ferguson’s 999 games as Manchester United manager, nobody has played in more of them than Ryan Giggs. Nor has any player better exemplified Ferguson’s ideal of an all-round footballer than Paul Scholes. It was these two, after indifferent runs of form that have had much to do with United’s recent struggles as a team, who secured this victory for Ferguson with their first league goals of the season — in Scholes’s case, a man-of-the-match performance.

United’s two strikes came in an eight-minute spell, interrupted by half-time. Charlton were back on the pitch when Scholes scissor-kicked his team into a 2-0 lead, but Alan Curbishley’s men were so pallid that nobody would have noticed had they stayed in the dressing room.

The manner and ease of United’s victory recalled the salad days of Ferguson’s record-breaking reign: an opposition that arrived hoping at best for a 0-0 result, a home team that dismantled them carefully in front of an Old Trafford crowd lulled to near-silence by the serenity of it all. This could have been the 1999-2000 season or the following campaign.

Carlos Queiroz, United’s assistant manager, complained last week about the demands of the Premiership affecting English clubs’ European chances. But with regard to Tuesday’s Champions League tie against Lyon, which United must win to stand a realistic chance of topping their group, the home team could not have asked for a gentler preparation.

Scholes, like his manager, had milestones to nod at. This was his 300th league game and 350th United start, and he has seldom played better. The way this performance arrived almost out of nothing, in terms of his prior form, mirrored the way his goals tend to arrive.

Apart from a an early header by Van Nistelrooy from a Brown cross, the home team had been too elaborate to be penetrative before the goal. Sixty seconds before Giggs struck a fan had stood up a few rows from Ferguson and yelled: "Fergie! It’s boring!!" Giggs changed all that. He collected the ball when it fell to earth after Rooney and Talal El Karkouri contested an aerial challenge and dribbled his way from 40 yards out, deep into the Charlton box. Only Chris Perry contested him, and Giggs slalomed inside the defender to open a shooting chance on his left foot. He struck the ball against Luke Young’s heel and it looped over the diving Kiely into the net.

It is celebration time at Old Trafford. Sir Alex Ferguson will rack up his 1,000th Manchester United game with the visit of Lyon on Tuesday and, in honour of the occasion, Ryan Giggs hit his first Premiership goal of the season and Paul Scholes scored his first goal for his club since his winner in last season's FA Cup semi-final.

Wayne Rooney failed to get on the scoresheet, although not for want of trying, but more importantly managed to get through the game without nudging anyone, to borrow Gary Neville's hilarious assessment of the young striker's antics for England in Madrid.

Whether there will be any cause for celebration in six months' time is an altogether trickier issue. Although two quality goals enlivened the proceedings, United were well below their best and Rooney was deployed almost anonymously on the right wing in a 4-5-1 formation that mirrored Charlton's unambitious tactics.

The excuse United would offer is that they had a Champions League game just three days away, but with the home side taking it easy and Charlton looking far more interested in keeping their shape and keeping the score down than doing anything to surprise their hosts, the result once again was poor value for money for the paying spectator, even if Scholes's goal was one of his best. Charlton contributed so little to the game that it took them 87 minutes to come up with a serious attempt on goal, Luke Young volleying over the bar from close range.

Ferguson was relieved on two counts. He wants to see Scholes among the goals again and he has admitted that United have been missing too many chances to be regarded as title contenders. Whether he regarded this as championship form is unclear; as is his custom, he spoke on the television after the game but did not attend the press conference. You can get away with that after 999 games. What you cannot get away with, according to the fans seated in the row behind the press box, is ignoring the fact that Keane, Giggs and Scholes are pale shadows of their former selves and they all need replacing.

Oh, and one other thing. Watching this match was like watching paint dry.