Second Half Thrills Sir Alex

Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted with the speed of United's play in the second half as Wigan were beaten 4-0 at Old Trafford.

The manager praised his players on MUTV for remaining in top gear and extending the advantage as last season's narrow title defeat to Manchester City continues to frustrate him.

"It was a pleasing part," he said of the conviction to keep going forward with the points safely in the bag. "Last year, we lost the league on goal difference and it won't happen again.

"I thought the first half of the game never got started. They were taking a minute for every goal-kick and slowed the game down. They kept possession well and are quite an aggressive team to play against, giving a lot of fouls away and stopping the game that way.

"Once we got the speed of the game right in the second half, it made a difference for us as we became more aggressive in terms of getting the ball back and making good tackles in midfield. That set a pattern with the crowd as it got them up. Scoring the first goal is always important in these type of matches and we ran out good winners."

Although disappointed with Javier Hernandez's early penalty, that drew a comfortable save out of Ali Al-Habsi, Sir Alex was thrilled to see Paul Scholes grace another landmark appearance with a goal.

"It wasn't a great penalty," he confessed."It can affect you a little bit in the sense you think you're having a good start but have to start again. We had a lot of strikes on goal in the first half without scoring. Danny Welbeck, in particular, had five strikes on goal.

"In the second half, we played the way we want to play and should play all the time with pace, speed and very good penetration. It turned out to be a good day for us.

"It's fantastic Paul scored - that is what we always remember him for as a young player, ghosting into the penalty box. Obviously, as he's got older, he doesn't need to do that as we prefer him to play in central midfield but he scored on his 100th, 200th, 300th, 400th, 500th, not 600th but now 700th appearance and it's fantastic."