Loving Life At The Top

Chris Smalling is loving life at United after making his third Champions League start in the 3-0 win over Bursaspor at the Ataturk stadium.

Victory in Turkey moves Sir Alex Ferguson’s men to within one point of Group C qualification and maintains the club’s perfect defensive record with a fourth consecutive clean sheet – a feat matched only by Real Madrid. Quite an achievement for Smalling who, not long ago, was plying his trade for non-league outfit Maidstone United.

“Coming to a new club and playing in the biggest competition is great, keeping clean sheets is what a defender likes and hopefully we can carry that on, I’m really enjoying the games,” Smalling told MUTV.

“It was a great game for us. In the first half we found it difficult to break them down, we had a lot of the ball. The manager said to improve our final ball in the second half and once that first goal came we started to unlock some doors.”

Despite fielding a strong line-up against the Turkish champions, Sir Alex Ferguson was without several first-team players, including the rested Rio Ferdinand, forcing the boss to throw Smalling straight into the pressure cooker that is the Ataturk stadium.

“You read a lot about the atmosphere in Turkey beforehand," he said. "But it was great, even on 80 minutes when they were 3-0 down their fans were still cheering so its full credit to them, and it’s great for us players."