Sir Alex Seeks Home Advantage

Manchester United are about to embark on a run of four consecutive home games in three different competitions and Sir Alex Ferguson is urging his side to “take full advantage” of the situation.

The Reds are already well-placed in three competitions and will face Norwich in the Barclays Premier League this weekend, then Real Madrid in the Champions League, Chelsea or Middlesbrough (to be confirmed tonight, Wednesday) in the FA Cup and Reading again in the league – all at Old Trafford – before closing out March with a trip to Sunderland.

There is a rearranged league trip to West Ham to fit in before the end of the season but as yet that has not been allocated a new date. Therefore, as it stands, preparations for the next few matches will not suffer the distraction of travelling up and down the country or to the continent, and United can count on the familiarity of playing at Old Trafford and, of course, home support.

“We’re hopeful that we can take full advantage of this spell,” Sir Alex told MUTV.

The boss is also confident the Old Trafford pitch, which came under scrutiny earlier this year, has improved drastically thanks to the dedicated work of United’s groundstaff.

"I must say, the one thing that is going to help us [in this period] is that the pitch has improved a tremendous amount,” added the boss. "Against Reading it was much, much better. It was not as good as the start of the season obviously but it is getting there. With a further 10 days between the Reading and Norwich games, I expect it to be back to normal."

March fixtures

2 March - Norwich H (PL)
5 March - Real Madrid H (CL)
10 March - Boro/Chelsea H (FAC)
16 March - Reading H (PL)
30 March - Sunderland A (PL)