United Seal Late Win Over Wolves

Park Ji-Sung scored a superb late winner to hand a below-par Manchester United victory over Wolves.

Deep into stoppage time the South Korea midfielder drifted in from the right and cut inside two challenges before firing into the near bottom corner.

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake equalised for the visitors with a great turn-and-shot before Park slotted in the winner.

Earlier, United's Owen Hargreaves lasted just six minutes on his return to the team after a two-year lay-off.

He limped off with what appeared to be a hamstring strain following his shock inclusion and the former Bayern Munich player now faces another spell on the sidelines.

Having played only one minute of senior football since September 2008, it would be fair to question Red Devils manager Sir Alex Ferguson's decision to play him from the start.

And less than six minutes after the kick-off the Ferguson put on his poker face as the 29-year-old England midfielder limped off and out of sight after delivering a tame ball from the right.

Bebe replaced Hargreaves, and although his contributions were mostly ineffective, he produced the best chance for United in the first half when his sharp effort inside the area was blocked.

United went into the game with a number of players, including Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Paul Scholes, suffering from a virus following the midweek Champions League trip to Turkey - and it showed.

The home side looked rattled following the early change to the system.

Ferguson's men found it hard to cope with Wolves' potency down the left, with Matt Jarvis again causing problems like he did against Manchester City last week.

The visitors came close to opening the scoring when Nenad Milijas's shot was deflected a foot wide of the United right-hand upright.

And a few minutes later Stephen Hunt only fractionally failed to connect with Jarvis's in-swinger into the six-yard area.

When the goal came it was a surprise because United could not put together more than three passes let alone cause panic in the Wolves defence.

But it was experience of United that came to the fore, when Darren Fletcher jinked his way in from the left and played a delicious ball which dissected the Wolves defence and found Park inside the area who stayed composed to slot past goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann.

But those expecting United to build on that would have been left disappointed as the sloppiness of the opening 45 minutes returned to their play.

However, Wolves boss Mick McCarthy was still finding it hard to make in-roads and opted to make a change by bringing on Ebanks-Blake.

And within two minutes of coming on, the former United youth player had fired in the equaliser after Milijas's mis-hit shot arrived at his feet on the edge of the six-yard area.

The title challengers were rocked for the second time in the match and were looking at another valuable two points slip away.

They pressed forward in desperation, and with a few minutes left of the 90 were denied when captain Karl Henry made a glorious tackle on Gabriel Obertan who was about to rip open the net.

It looked game over, but then with two minutes of stoppage time played Park tried his luck by cutting in from the left before firing in.


Ji-sung Park celebrates after putting United 1-0 up