Boss Praises Team Patience

Sir Alex Ferguson was reassured by the methodical manner with which United broke down the resistance of Portsmouth at Old Trafford.

The Reds were held to a goalless draw for all-but five minutes of the first half, but Wayne Rooney's opener and an own-goal by Anthony Vanden Borre moments before the break ended Pompey's hopes of picking up anything in their ongoing fight against relegation.

"It took us a while to get the first goal, but we had a lot of pressure, a lot of possession and we were patient enough," Sir Alex told MUTV. "I think that's important, especially when teams come and sit there, like they did today.

"They were there to make it difficult and eventually we got the goal just before half time. We were fortunate with the second one, but that was important. It opened the game for us and in the second half we had a good peformance.

"It makes it difficult for your opponents because they have to come out in order to win the game, but it galvanised us in the sense that we could then chase goals ourselves, and fortunately we got three more."

Dimitar Berbatov was guilty of a missing a gimme from just six yards out with the scoreline blank, but Sir Alex was delighted to see his record signing atone with a gloriously-fashioned fourth goal just before the hour mark.

"It was a magnificent goal, absolutely brilliant," he said. "The confidence it brought to his game after that was brilliant. It was good to take him off, because he got the applause from the crowd and it was terrific. He's had a good performance today."

Berbatov was substituted as part of a triple switch shortly after his goal, as was fellow goalscorer Wayne Rooney. With a spate of tough fixtures looming for United, Sir Alex was delighted to have the chance to rest the on-song England international, who has now matched his career best of 23 goals in one season.

"He's in great form," said the manager. "It was a great opportunity for us today to rest him, to give him that rest. We had fresh players to come on with Mame Diouf and Michael Owen and it was a good opportunity for them too."