Kuszczak keen to capitalise on good run

TOMASZ KUSZCZAK has had enough of sitting on the Manchester United bench and is relishing his extended run in the side.

The Poland international completed his sixth successive game against Wolves on Tuesday night, by far the best run he has had since joining United from West Brom in 2006.

It is a reward for Kuszczak’s patience, given he slipped down to number three in the United pecking order when Ben Foster recovered from his cruciate knee ligament injury at the start of last season.

Alex Ferguson handed Foster the goalkeeping gloves when Edwin van der Sar was ruled out of the opening two months of the season with broken fingers.

Unfortunately for Foster, his spell as number one was blighted by high-profile mistakes against Manchester City and Sunderland.

So, when Van der Sar was ruled out again when he suffered a knee injury in a collision with Everton’s Tim Cahill at Old Trafford last month, Ferguson finally gave Kuszczak his chance.

“It is great to get a run in the team,” he said. “Playing for Manchester United is fantastic. Even when I have had the hard times, that was always my ambition. I didn’t start thinking my chance would not come.

“Now it is my time to play regularly and I want to do it for a long time.”

Talk of disharmony between Kuszczak and Van der Sar has been played down, even though it was the younger man who was responsible for the issue being raised in the first place during an MUTV interview.

However, there is little doubt Kuszczak would like to take over from Van der Sar permanently.

But the 27-year-old knows he must improve if he is to convince Ferguson he is up to the task.

“I know what I have to do,” said Kuszczak.

“I have to play well and keep clean sheets. I also have to keep my mistakes to an absolute minimum.

“I am still making some small mistakes, which I am not happy with.

“While I didn’t concede (against Wolves) I made some errors which could have cost us a goal.

“Thankfully they didn’t but I must try to do better next time.