Carling Triumph for United

Manchester United’s victory over brave Wigan at the Millenium Stadium brought a much needed trophy and an air of respectability to what has been, by their extremely high standards, a mediocre season.

Even the most ardent Wigan fan cannot deny that United deserved to win the Carling Cup, once derided as second class silverware but now, in the light of Chelsea’s emergence, given sufficient prominence to encourage managers of the calibre of Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson to field their strongest teams.

They created a hatful of chances and compensated for the disappointment of a slender 1-0 half-time lead (courtesy of Wayne Rooney) with a devastating 16 minute spell after the interval which brought goals from Saha, Ronaldo and Rooney again, and in the final phase of the game they might have added at least two more - though the margin would have been unkind to Wigan, who created chances of their own but lacked a cutting edge.

Rooney was awarded the man of the match trophy, but it might easily have gone to the brilliant Christiano Ronaldo or to Wes Brown, whose performance at the back must have impressed the watching England manager.

And afterwards, as the joyful United players paraded the trophy round that splendid stadium, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, omitted by Sir Alex and not even called on as a sub, cut a lonely and forlorn figure as he slipped quietly away down the tunnel.