Sir Alex Proud Of Home Run

It might not have been the most aesthetically pleasing performance of the season - but United 2-0 Norwich was nevertheless the match that made another piece of history for Sir Alex Ferguson's men.

The Reds' 19 consecutive league wins at home constitutes a club record, and Sir Alex was pleased with that even if the display - albeit on a baking hot October afternoon against a resilient away team - was a little disappointing.

"You couldn't say that was a good performance today but it was gritty and determined as we always are and we never give in which is a fantastic quality," Sir Alex told MUTV. "Our home record has been fantastic over the last year. Only the draw against West Brom [last October] has spoiled it a bit. It would have been a really fantastic record otherwise. We still remain undefeated at home in the league [since Chelsea, April 2010]."

A forgettable first half in which Norwich goalkeeper John Ruddy scarcely had a save to make prompted Sir Alex to make tactical tweaks at the break, and he feels these changes had a positive effect.

"We changed Ji-sung Park into a more central position, and Nani to the wide left position, to allow Antonio Valencia to get forward a bit more on the right. We improved a good bit, we had much more speed in our game and more control. In the second half we improved but we still hardly made any chances in the game because they were so deep. They had everyone in the penalty box, two midfield players sat in front of the back four. I've seen that before many times and it's very, very difficult to break down. We found that today.

"Norwich just stuck to their box and hit long balls and they got a few counter attacks out of that and caused us a few problems. In fact, they probably got something out of every counter-attack. That put us under pressure a lot. Norwich's counter-attacks could have hurt us."

The most painful of the attacks Sir Alex referred to should have put Norwich 1-0 up in the 65th minute but instead the agony was all Anthony Pilkington's as the Canaries midfielder contrived to slot the ball wide when he only had United goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard to beat.

"It was an incredible chance for them," admitted Sir Alex. "Antonio [Valencia] got caught dallying on the ball a bit and he [Pilkington] has knocked it wide. You thought with that chance he's got to hit the target so it was a break for us."

United captalised on the let-off just three minutes later and the all-important first goal came from an unlikely source, given that Wayne Rooney and Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez had both recovered from injuries to start the match. "You don't expect Ando to score with a header, do you?" said Sir Alex. "But you take a goal from anyone. Norwich still continued to have a go at us after that and it was quite an exciting game then."

Danny Welbeck came off the bench to bag the killer second strike - his third goal in five days, and his fifth of a promising season - and again the boss had his reasons for making the switch of personnel. "I just felt we needed someone to get hold of the ball up front," explained Sir Alex. "Chicharito in this particular game just didn't have the spaces he normally gets. Danny came on and improved us a bit."