Rooney's Rapid Return Pays Dividends

'Charlie, Charlie what's the score?' the traveling fans in the Darwen End chanted in the second half. Sir Alex Ferguson might have begun rebuilding his bridges with Paul Ince, but the Manchester United supporters seem to think his original character assassination was just about right.

The score at that point was 2-0, but it could have been a lot more. If United had accepted just the opportunities Dimitar Berbatov created they would have won by three or four. Blackburn could have done without losing Paul Robinson before the game and Roque Santa Cruz during it, but Ince has more to worry about than his reputation among his former admirers. Always a tough proposition under Mark Hughes, Blackburn appear in danger of turning into a soft touch.

Rumors of Wayne Rooney's injury, like Mark Twain's demise, had clearly been greatly exaggerated. Perhaps we should have suspected something when Ferguson cleared him to play for England, for the ankle injury he sustained in Denmark was not serious enough to prevent him starting here, never mind sitting out next week's internationals.

Ferguson also suggested recently that Ryan Giggs could no longer be expected to tramp up and down the left wing at his age, and would now be used more sparingly in central roles, and in this he was as good as his word. Giggs partnered Berbatov in the middle, occupying a deep-lying position behind the striker, while Cristiano Ronaldo was stationed wide left and Rooney wide right.

It might be observed that that is hardly doing the square thing by Rooney and playing him in his proper position, as pledged at the start of the season, though now Berbatov is here Ferguson is struggling to keep all his promises. Even with Paul Scholes out until Christmas, Carlos Tevez, Nani and Ji-Sung Park had to settle for places on the bench. With Berbatov in his present form, they can hardly complain.

Perhaps not surprisingly, United's new formation did not click straight away. Giggs and Rooney both lost the ball in defensive situations in the first 15 minutes and had to be rescued by team-mates behind them, and the lesser lights of the Blackburn attack produced the first attempt on goal worthy of the name.

Edwin van der Sar produced a one-handed save to prevent Matt Derbyshire sweeping in Andre Ooijer's cross, with Santa Cruz unable to reach the loose ball in time. Then when Berbatov produced a short but superbly effective reverse pass to send a colleague bearing down on Jason Brown's goal, it was neither Rooney nor Giggs who was the beneficiary but Darren Fletcher, and his attempt missed the target.

The next time Berbatov got involved, on the half-hour, his cross from the right did find Giggs, only for a crisply hit first-time drive to be athletically tipped over the bar by Brown.

That ought to have done wonders for the reserve goalkeeper's confidence, though he rather spoiled the effect by allowing United a soft goal from the resulting corner. Even if there was a strong suggestion he was shouldered out of the way by Nemanja Vidic as Wes Brown nodded in Rooney's cross at the far post, Brown should still have made a more determined attempt to reach the ball first and was entitled to a lot more protection from his central defenders.

At the half-time interval Ince made a beeline for the referee to protest about the goal, though at least Brown had been able to prevent his side turning round two goals down. He left his line smartly to save at Rooney's feet when, with Fabio Capello watching, the striker should have been much more clinical after being played clean through by an excellent Berbatov pass.

Blackburn opened the second half by bringing a save from Van der Sar, when Stephen Warnock's return pass gave Santa Cruz a shooting opportunity. Unfortunately, the Paraguayan seemed to injure himself in the process and limped off with a hamstring problem three minutes later. With Morten Gamst Pedersen also disappearing before the game was an hour old, Blackburn's chances of getting back on terms looked about as forlorn as the miserable weather.

Indeed, it was possibly only the pouring rain and squelchy pitch that were hampering United's efforts to settle the contest with a second goal. Ronaldo was having an exceptionally quiet game by his standards, and even when he swapped wings with Rooney some decent United build-ups kept becoming bogged down on the flanks without a telling ball being played into the center.

At least they did until the 64th minute, when Ronaldo made a difference by the simple expedient of cutting in from the right wing and bringing the ball with him. Martin Olsson had no answer to that, and once Ronaldo cut a pass back to find Rooney in space near the penalty spot the rest was a formality.

Only then did the United fans deem it safe to begin taunting Ince, yet Van der Sar was called on to make another save before Brown made an even better one at the other end to deny Berbatov. Blackburn named their goalkeeper man of the match at the end, which was kind, if a bit desperate.