‘Peter Ramage's dreadful back-pass that put Wayne Rooney clear on goal in the eighth minute was only the beginning. Manchester United aimed 29 shots at Shay Given's goal. Rooney was denied his first hat-trick since his extraordinary United debut against Fenerbahce only by his shot, at a virtually unguarded net, brushing Robbie Elliott before striking a post.
The last time Roeder took his place in the away dugout at Old Trafford, his team had conceded six. An hour after the final whistle and with no sign of him at the post-match press conference, someone was dispatched to ask whether he had resigned as manager of West Ham. In the afterglow of victory yesterday, Sir Alex Ferguson remarked that it was not glib to say that his Manchester United side could have scored 10.
In everything except the scoreline, this was a massacre. As the snow drifted down, some
Exhausted after another display of absolute commitment and skill, Rooney was pushed in front of the television cameras, where he gave an interview of such inarticulacy that Hunter Davies, who will ghost his thoughts over five volumes of autobiography, might have wondered how he would fill a chapter.
One opportunity was more than Alan Shearer was given in an hour and a half of very familiar frustration. As the Stretford End produced the usual abuse for the man who had rejected them twice, it would have been tempting to say the Newcastle captain would never want to play here again were it not for the fact that Old Trafford is a likely venue for an FA Cup semi-final. He would gladly take one more appearance at what for those with a black-and-white heart is the cruellest of venues.