CARDIFF, Feb 26: Wayne Rooney scored twice as Manchester United avoided the ignominy of a second consecutive trophy-less season by hammering Wigan 4-0 to win the League Cup here on Sunday.
Louis Saha, with his sixth goal in the competition, and Cristiano Ronaldo also found the net as Wigan, appearing in the first major final of the club’s history, found themselves out of their depth in the Millennium Stadium.
The triumph in a competition Ferguson has treated with disdain for most of his time at Old Trafford will provide only limited consolation for the fact that Chelsea have virtually wrapped up a second consecutive Premiership title and for United’s early exits from the Champions League and the FA Cup this season.
But it should be enough to bolster the Scot’s position, both in the eyes of the majority of United’s fans and the club’s owners, the Glazer family.
Barely two minutes had elapsed before Rooney had wriggled his way around the back of the Wigan back four and flicked the ball back to Louis Saha, who completely miscued his strike on goal from 10 yards out.
Wigan could only clear the ball as far as Gary Neville, whose chip was met by a header from Rooney that came back off the under-side of the bar.
Astute passes from Park Ji-Sung and Ryan Giggs generated two more openings for Saha, who had been preferred to Ruud van Nistelrooy, presumably on the strength of his goals earlier in the competition.
Ferguson must have been regretting that particular decision as he watched Saha waste the first chance through a poor first touch before being thwarted on the second by Stephane Henchoz’s full-stretch block.
Rooney was clearly in the mood, coasting past the Wigan left-back Leighton Baines with disdainful ease to set up Ronaldo, whose swipe at the air was almost a match for Saha’s early miss.
By the time Jimmy Bullard had produced his side’s first shot on target, an unthreatening long range effort, Wigan had lost the services of first-choice goalkeeper Mike Pollitt, who appeared to have injured his thigh and was replaced by John Filan after quarter of an hour.
Having failed with the rapier, United finally made their breakthrough with a more bludgeoning approach.
A punt out of defence was flicked on by Saha towards Rooney, triggering a collective bout of panic in the Wigan defence which resulted in Arjan de Zeeuw and right-back Pascal Chimbonda running into each other, in the process leaving Rooney with the ball and a clear run at goal.
The England forward advanced to the edge of the area before placing his shot beyond Filan’s left hand.
Wigan enjoyed some encouraging moments as the first half drew to a close, notably a cross-cum-shot from Jason Roberts that Wes Brown cleared from close to the goal-line.
Edwin van der Sar made a signicant save just after the interval, beating out Henri Camara’s fierce shot at his near post after the Senegal forward had nut-megged Rio Ferdinand.
Saha finally got on the scoresheet by finishing off a low cross from Gary Neville at the second attempt after his first strike had bounced off Filan’s body.
The ending may have been a little scrappy but it had been a sweet move by United, Ryan Giggs’s crossfield ball picking out Ronaldo, who put Neville in behind the back four on a typical overlapping run down the right.
Wigan were still reeling from that setback when Saha’s pass found Ronaldo in a generous amount of space in the inside right channel and just inside the box. The Portuguese winger finished with an emphatic low drive into the opposite corner.
Rooney then claimed his second, sweeping a close-range shot past Filan after a Giggs free-kick had been knocked on by Saha and Ferdinand in quick succession. Game over.
English Premiership results on Sunday:
Bolton 2 Fulham 1
Liverpool 1 Manchester City 0
West Bromwich 0 Middlesbrough 2
Saturday
Newcastle 2 Everton 0
—Agencies