Boss salutes defensive starlets

Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted with United’s convincing 4-0 victory over Wigan Athletic, and had particular words of praise for youngsters Gerard Pique and Danny Simpson who were thrown into the action.

Pique started the match at right-back, but switched to the centre to partner Rio Ferdinand just before the half hour mark after both Nemanja Vidic and John O'Shea had gone off injured.

As a result, Simpson was introduced in the 29th minute and the 20-year-old defender came of age during only his second appearance for the club, adding an assist to his name following his excellent cross for Wayne Rooney for United's fourth goal.

“Danny's a very confident boy,” Sir Alex told MUTV. “He’s so quick and is a tremendous defender. He’s improving his technique all the time and he is one of the players that I would not consider going on loan this year because he’s valuable to us.

"Pique also came in today and was absolutely outstanding. He was one our best players against Coventry [in the Carling Cup] and is improving all the time."

Carlos Tevez opened the scoring for United on 54 minutes after shaking off two Wigan defenders before calmly slotting past Chris Kirkland.

“The challenges were coming in first from Kilbane and then from the goalkeeper but he kept his nerve, which I think is the most important thing in that situation, and composed himself enough for a good finish,” added Sir Alex.

“Wigan set their stall out with one up as most teams are doing. But we got the spark in the second half and earned a good victory.”

Cristiano Ronaldo capped a fine performance with the next two goals on 59 and 76 minutes, before Wayne Rooney completed the rout after another clinical move.

“It was only his second headed goal for us,” acknowledged the United manager. “Wayne should get more [headers] because he’s a good header of the ball. It was a great move and fantastic ball in from Danny Simpson.

“That’s three in three games for Ronaldo and someone said to me ‘do you really think he’ll score more than 20?’ We’ll just have to see, but I certainly hope so.”