Boss Pleased With Display

David Moyes felt Manchester United excelled on a difficult surface against West Brom and looked a real threat throughout at The Hawthorns.

The Reds returned to the scene of Sir Alex Ferguson's final game in charge and headed home with the three points on this occasion to avenge the surprise loss at Old Trafford earlier in the campaign.

With Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata and Adnan Januzaj all selected, there was plenty of flair in the starting line-up, but the defensive work of Phil Jones and Chris Smalling also earned credit from the manager.

"I thought Robin and Wayne were excellent," said Moyes. "Mata and Adnan too, but we also needed a good defensive performance as well so, all round, I’m pleased.

"The pitch was very lively, it was drying out a little bit and it wasn’t that easy to pass the ball, but we looked much more potent going forward and looked more likely to score than we have in other games. I made the point about us trying to attack more and have better play going forward and I think we did that.

"I thought Smalling and Jones played really well," he opined. "Smalling was excellent by all accounts for England too, while Jones is a very good player. He's been out for a month and we needed to try to get him some minutes as we've got some big games coming up. We needed to make sure he's ready to play and they both did a great job.

"[For the first goal] it was a really good header by Phil after Rafael did good work down the right and got the free-kick. Robin's delivery was excellent and, thankfully, Phil got across his defender and scored."

Moyes explained the decision to substitute van Persie after the striker was lectured by referee Jon Moss when already on a yellow card following a robust tackle on Steven Reid.

"I thought it was a foul but it did not warrant a yellow card," explained Moyes to MUTV. "I was always taking him off anyway because he played 90 minutes for Holland in midweek. I actually told him in the hotel that I'd try to get him off at the right time in the game so it made the decision easy. I couldn't afford him to have another challenge and give the referee a decision to make."