Rooney inspires perfect response

Charlton Athletic - 1 Manchester Utd - 3: In achieving their customary victory over Charlton Athletic on Saturday, Manchester United did not appear to have been distracted by the abrupt and acerbic departure of Roy Keane from Old Trafford the day before. If anything they looked relieved.

The ephemeral nature of football dictates that while captains and kings come and go, the tumult and the shouting continue unabated.

Here United and their followers had plenty to shout about. Buoyed by their win against Chelsea a fortnight earlier and inspired by Wayne Rooney, Alex Ferguson's team gave their most fluent performance of the season.

Keane did not cast a shadow over the game. A couple of banners at the United end of the ground acknowledged his long and valuable service to the club and there was a brief chant of "Only one Keano" but otherwise Roy of the ravers was banished to history.

Of Friday's events Ferguson would say only that "it was a very amicable meeting between Roy and myself, we wished each other well". This he confided to Sky, the Marines being unavailable.

But Ruud van Nistelrooy admitted to being shocked by Keane's abrupt exit saying "yes, I needed time to cope with it". Charlton must have wished the Dutchman had needed to cope a little longer since Van Nistelrooy won the match for United with two superbly-taken goals in the second half.

While the victory consolidated United's position in the top four of the Premiership, the renewed confidence of their football augured well for tomorrow's Champions League encounter at home to Villarreal, when anything but a win would jeopardise their chances of reaching the knockout stage.

Charlton hardly provided United with a dress rehearsal.

Their home form this season has been poor and nothing they achieved replicated the threat that Juan Roman Riquelme, England's tormentor in the recent friendly against Argentina, is likely to pose at Old Trafford.

Maybe the knowledge that Charlton had not defeated Manchester United for 16 years rested uneasily with Alan Curbishley's players.

Until they lost 4-1 at Blackburn Charlton were thriving away from home largely through the combination of Alexei Smertin and Danny Murphy in midfield and the finishing of Darren Bent. Little of this was evident on Saturday as Alan Smith and Paul Scholes achieved an early grip in midfield which provided the base for Rooney to strut his stuff.

Rooney was awesome. From the moment in the eighth minute when his through-pass beat the offside trap, releasing Van Nistelrooy for a narrow-angled shot which was cleared off the line by Hermann Hreidarsson, the young United player ran large areas of the game. Now that he has turned 20, Rooney is showing welcome signs of maturity to match his footballing gifts.

Tomorrow's Champions League match may make nonsense of this theory but if Rooney can go through 90 minutes without being booked by Mike Riley, the yellow peril, his reformation is surely at hand.

He helped to set up United's opening goal, eight minutes before half-time, after a piece of trickery by Cristiano Ronaldo had exposed Charlton on the left. When Rooney gained possession the defence moved towards him as one man, leaving Darren Fletcher unattended on the opposite flank. Fletcher stumbled as he turned to collect Rooney's pass but still had ample time to find his feet before slipping the ball back for Smith to drive in.

Four minutes earlier Bent had dragged Charlton's first chance wide after a free-kick from Talal El Karkouri had cannoned off Radostin Kishishev.

When next they achieved a clear glimpse of goal, just past the hour, Darren Ambrose gathered a return pass from Bent to curl a long shot beyond Edwin van der Sar. "It was game on," said Curbishley later - but only for five minutes.

Then Rooney took possession a couple of yards inside his own half before surging and swerving past four defenders on the left in an extraordinary demonstration of his pace and power.

In that situation many young players would have cut in, thinking of nothing but a shot. Rooney, however, had the coolness, vision and skill to chip the ball with the outside of his foot towards Van Nistelrooy, who controlled it on his chest before pivoting to crash an unstoppable volley into the net. United were back in front and Amid the celebrations an advertising hoarding was knocked down and a steward was hurt.

Van Nistelrooy was duly booked for his exuberance but he still shook off Luke Young to complete United's victory five minutes from the end.

There may be only one Keano but he wasn't missed here.

Guardian Service