Flitcroft halts Reds’ title charge

Blackburn Rovers 1 Man Utd 0

Alex Ferguson's third-placed side had won their previous eight games and had not lost to Blackburn for eight years, but skipper Garry Flitcroft's goal and a virtually flawless defensive performance was enough to put an end to those records. It was sweet revenge for Flitcroft who revealed he had been subjected to "City reject" taunts before the game by Man Utd fans: "In the car park before the game I got the old "City reject" chants so it was nice to put one over on them.

Blackburn boss Graeme Souness hailed the performances of his ex-United strike duo, with Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke causing United numerous problems.

Souness described the victory as "a monster win for us" against a top team. "It was a great team performance and I thought our front two were particularly good. They worked their socks off, cleverly held up play and showed they were top players.

"They will have enjoyed it but we looked very solid throughout the whole team. We were apprehensive and started in a nervous fashion but we changed it, picked a lot more of the second-phase balls up and had some good chances and caused them some problems."

Souness revealed the result was a reward for his game plan, adding: "We've often got punished in end-to-end games so I wanted us to try and win the ball on the halfway line and for the largest part it worked. Garry likes to knock a few people over and he wasn't doing it in the first half but he did in the second and we started to get more of the ball. We feel our football has been good this year but this time we had a game plan maybe we need to concede more ground to teams. It worked today."

Blackburn meet United twice next month in the Worthington Cup semi-final, but this was the one Souness wanted to win: "The Premiership is the most important thing for us and these are a very valuable three points.

"This is our second season here and we want to be in it next year. We want to do well in the Worthington Cup but if someone had said win today and lose the other two I might have taken it."

Flitcroft scored in the 40th minute, hammering home after Martin Taylor had headed back Damien Duff's free-kick. It was the first goal United had conceded in 498 minutes but Rovers wasted several chances to extend their lead.

United boss Alex Ferguson bemoaned his side's missed chances Ruud van Nistelrooy was a particular culprit: "I thought we did very well in the first half and could have scored four or five goals. But if you miss chances like we did today and conceded their only strike at goal you think it's not going to be your day.

"In the second half the final pass let us down at times but we still created some good chances but we'll regret the chances we missed in the first half. "The important thing is we have always had a great resilience to keep going and we did that today. But it wasn't our day, it just wasn't our day."

The normally-reliable van Nistelrooy squandered United's best opening midway through the second half, rounding goalkeeper Brad Friedel but firing into the side-netting.

"You expect Ruud to score in those situations," said Ferguson, "but I think today he rushed it and was anxious."

On Flitcroft's decisive breakthrough the United boss added: "You don't like losing goals like that, its a soft one from our point of view. They were not in the game at the time and it meant in the second half they only had to play on the counter-attack."

Ferguson gave Roy Keane his first outing for almost four months when he introduced him as a second-half substitute but taking off United's most forceful player Diego Forlan.

"I think that was plenty for Roy. He was well off his normal form, but he's so inspirational it was a matter of getting him out there," said Ferguson.

The result leaves United four points behind leaders Arsenal in the table but Ferguson is not unduly concerned: "The important thing about the championship is to be challenging on New Year's Day. The second half of the season can be very interesting, so you want to be in the first three."

For the first 30 minutes, United looked awesome and spurned a number of good openings. What will have been a concern to Ferguson, however, is that his strikers did not make Brad Friedel work during that period.

Five minutes before half-time Blackburn made a nonsense of United's territorial possession by taking the lead. Damien Duff's free-kick by the right corner of the penalty box was headed back by Taylor, and Flitcroft drove the ball into the gap between Barthez and the post.

Rovers were much better after the break and Gary Neville had to dive in to stop Cole heading a second.

Phil Neville was only a yard wide after Blackburn were surprised by a corner routine and then Keane came on for Forlan for the last 31 minutes.

* Republic of Ireland skipper Kenny Cunningham has urged his predecessor Roy Keane to return to the international fold.

Keane has not played for his country since walking out of their World Cup campaign following an infamous fall-out with then manager Mick McCarthy.

However, with McCarthy now having departed, Cunningham is hoping Keane will be back in action for the Republic's two Euro 2006 qualifiers against Georgia and Albania next year.

The Birmingham ace commented: "It would be great to have Roy back in the side. The guy is a fantastic player, he is an inspirational figure. As the captain of the team I would want him back and it would be great if we could begin with a new manager and have Roy back as well.

"If we are going to qualify for the Euro 2006 finals we have to win and having Roy back in the side would be a huge boost for everyone.

"Roy is one of the very best midfielders in the world and having him back in the side again would be such a bonus. I don't know if Roy has to apologise or just make it clear he wants to play for his country again."

BLACKBURN: Friedel, Neill, Taylor, Short, Johansson, Dunn (Gillespie 55), Tugay, Flitcroft, Duff, Cole, Yorke.

MAN UTD: Barthez, Gary Neville, Brown, Silvestre, O'Shea, Solskjaer, Phil Neville (Blanc 84), Scholes, Giggs (Beckham 70), Forlan (Keane 59), van Nistelrooy.

Referee: D. Elleray (Harrow on the Hill)