Carrick Lauds Scholes Return

Michael Carrick has praised the contribution of Paul Scholes to United’s 3-0 win over Bolton Wanderers and claimed the legend’s return has “given everyone a lift” at Old Trafford.

Scholes scored the opener on his first Barclays Premier League start since coming out of retirement before strikes from Danny Welbeck and later Carrick sealed a comfortable win over Owen Coyle’s relegation threatened side.

Victory means the Reds are temporarily level on points with Manchester City at the top, but as Carrick admits, the highlight of Saturday’s action was without doubt the return of Scholes and his first goal at the Theatre of Dreams since January 2010.

“It was great to see him score and it’s great to have him back for the quality that he brings, not just on the pitch, but from the way he carries himself around the place and for his attitude towards the game,” Carrick told MUTV. “It’s great for the younger players who have come in this season; they can train with him and learn a lot from him just as we have in the past.

“He’s such a world class player and I’ve learnt so much off him, as well as other players. Being in my position, I’ve watched him a lot and learnt off him and tried to add his attributes to my game. It’s great to have him back and it’s given everyone a lift. I’m sure he’s delighted to come back, the reception he got from the fans was fantastic and I’m sure he’ll look back on it as a special day.”

United carved out a number of early chances during an excellent display of attacking endeavour but were ultimately left frustrated by the heroics of visiting keeper Adam Bogdan, who as well as saving Wayne Rooney’s penalty, pulled off a number of impressive saves.The breakthrough eventually came on the stroke of half time via the returning Scholes but the Reds again scuppered several opportunities on the other side of the break, before late two late strikes sealed three crucial points. And as Carrick explained after the match, patience was the key.

“I thought we deserved to be more than one goal up in the first half. We would have felt a bit hard done by if we gone in to the break at 0-0 so the goal gave us a lift. We felt we were playing some good football and getting opportunities to work the goalkeeper. But you just keep going; we’ve been there so many times. You just stay patient and keep doing the things that you are good at and what we believe would be good enough in the end.

“It was nice to see Scholesy’s goal go in and it put us into a much better position. It was a bit of a strange start to the second half, we had a couple of opportunities which we didn’t take but once the second goal came we were more than comfortable after that.”

Carrick’s goal, a lovely left-footed strike from 25 yards, was his second of the campaign and a first since the Carling Cup win over City in January 2010; a statistic he’s looking to improve. “Scoring goals is great, I’d like to score a few more than I have done and I’ve said as long as we are winning and I’m contributing in different ways, then I’ll be happy. But it’s always nice to score and add something else to your game. It was nice to see that one go in.”