Ferguson satisfied with response as Rooney finds his goal touch

Manchester United took their frustrations out on the Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Rooney and Nani among the goals.

Sir Alex Ferguson was thrilled with the response from his Manchester United players after their Champions League heartache as they proved too good for Wolverhampton Wanderers at Old Trafford yesterday.

United were eliminated from the group stages of the Champions League by Basel after losing 2-1 on Wednesday, but two goals apiece from Nani and Wayne Rooney saw them bounce back back in style as they moved to within two points of Manchester City at the top of the table.

"We will take a lot of stick from critics and even from people we thought were perhaps on our side," Ferguson said. "This was the right response. Some of the football was fantastic."

Ferguson was glad to see Rooney back on the scoresheet after the England striker ended a run of eight league games without a goal as he struck his 10th and 11th goals of the season.

"Wayne in particular, does go in spurts," he said.

"He scored nine in the early part of the season. Now we are going up to an important part of the season, if we get the goal ratio again, it puts us in good fettle."

Mick McCarthy, the Wolves manager, said he had been surprised Ferguson and United had come in for so much criticism in midweek.

"All the hype and talk about their demise is nonsense," he said.

"They have had a tough couple of results. They have been knocked out of the Champions League.

"But they will get back again because they have got really good players and a whole load of young players, who are developing."

Despite being convincingly beaten in the end, in spite of Steven Fletcher's goal early in the second half which made the score 2-1, McCarthy was satisfied with how his side had played.

"I was happy with the performance," he said. "We played 4-4-2 against a team who are better than us, who have better players than us and are a bigger club than us. And, unfortunately, we got turned over."

* Press Association

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