VIEW FROM THE PRESSBOX

With three grinning Glazers sitting side by side in the directors' box and Sir Alex Ferguson and Roy Keane exchanging lingering touchline smiles, Manchester United played a successful game of Happy Families last night. They did not do badly on the pitch either, this comprehensive, sporadically compelling win not only placating hitherto disgruntled fans but surely rendering the second leg of their Champions League qualifier in Hungary a mere formality.

Entering the directors' box about 20 minutes before kick-off, the three brothers were immediately mobbed by apparently adoring fans clamouring for autographs in front of conveniently positioned television cameras. The resultant footage rather diminished the impact of the rebels' chants of "We can do this every week" as they scuffled with police on Chester Road.

Whether or not the Glazer acolytes were hand-picked, this show of apparent harmony must have reassured Ferguson, whose programme notes betrayed certain unease at his need to appease both owners and supporters. "A lot has been said about the situation, with calls for my resignation in some quarters - and I have sympathy with the supporters, no one supported their cause more than me," he wrote. "But when the club became a PLC, somebody was going to buy it. Let's stand together and be a truly united football club. It's the only way to achieve success. So let's welcome Joel, Avram and Bryan to Manchester United and show them what's special about the club they bought - and what makes Old Trafford a truly electrifying place."

Right now no one musters the latter frisson more than Wayne Rooney, who swiftly announced himself by shooting low and unerringly beyond Norbert Csernyanszki after the Hungarian champions merely succeeded in semi-thwarting a fluent United passing move. Initiated by Keane, it also featured Cristiano Ronaldo and Rooney, whose short ball to Ruud van Nistelrooy was partially cleared by a defender only for the ball to rebound for his right foot to do the rest.

That was in the seventh minute, by which time United might even have been 2-0 up had Van Nistelrooy not strayed offside while moving to meet a clever Rooney reverse pass. No matter, it indicated that Ferguson's new-found passion for the currently voguish 4-3-3 formation may yet pay rich dividends. The system has its critics but here it possessed the twin benefits of affording United width while offering Rooney and Ronaldo, deployed predominantly on the left, considerable improvisational licence.

Rooney got the second half off to a good start too and the Glazers clapped as their new prodigy created United's second for Van Nistelrooy. Indeed the precision of the Dutchman's low shot into the bottom corner served as a reproach to those who suspected he had lost his scoring touch.