May memories drive United on

Manchester United 1 Reading 0

An admittedly unconvincing victory over Reading, short hours after City lost at Everton, allowed Manchester United to open a 15-point gap at the top of the Premier League and move an emphatic step closer a 20th English league title. Now, the prospect of United winning the title by the largest margin in the history of the Premier League — or any other top flight league — is very much on the agenda. In 2000, Ferguson saw United romp to the championship by a colossal 18-point margin over Arsenal but, with City still to visit Old Trafford at the start of next month, the possibility of the veteran manager bettering that mark grows by the week.

What a contrast to last season when City pipped United to the title in the closing minutes of the campaign with Sergio Aguero’s goal against QPR. Quite literally, the hardest-fought Premier League title race in history may be about to be followed by the easiest.

“It’s massive incentive to make sure we hold on to this lead,” said United defender Chris Smalling when asked how much events of last May have inspired his club. “ It looks good but we will go away on international duty now and when we come back we have two games in three days and that could be a key few days for us in terms of both the league and cup.

“We knew what we had to do. But we knew that even before City played but it did give us an extra incentive. We could have got a few more goals but we stayed solid and got the points.

“It wasn’t a great game, it wasn’t pretty. It got pretty ugly. But I think we are just happy with the three points because that is what we needed.”

“Not pretty” is an accurate assessment of this United win, one set up by a Wayne Rooney shot midway through the first half which took a somewhat fortunate deflection from defender Alex Pearce on its way in. United were fortunate, also, that Nemanja Vidic was not penalised for a second-half push on Adrian Mariappa that should have brought Reading a penalty but, as Smalling noted, Ferguson had little problem in the style of victory.

“Yeah, the manager said that at this time of year there can be a lot of 1-0 wins which can be ugly and you just need to get the three points,” said the defender.

The title may be a formality for United but Ferguson revealed that, with an eye on an important upcoming FA Cup quarter-final replay with Chelsea, his club will also charter private jets to ferry Javier Hernandez, Antonio Valencia and Shinji Kagawa back from long-haul international duty next week.

Well he might. Victory for United in their first fixture out of the break, at Sunderland, coupled with a City defeat at Newcastle would mean that a win for Ferguson in the home derby against City on April 8 would open the lead at the top of the table to 21 points. While that would not mathematically clinch the title, with seven games remaining, City could not overtake United’s points tally. It may be labouring a point, but given Ferguson’s well-known penchant for holding a footballing vendetta, it is not difficult to imagine that the 71-year-old is enjoying stamping his authority over Cityafter the events of last May.

For Reading, staring relegation in the face and without a manager since the midweek sacking of Brian McDermott, a decent showing at Old Trafford meant nothing without a point to show for it.

“It’s a massive disappointment,” said defender Nicky Shorey. “I’ve known Brian for a long time and what he has done has been amazing. I wasn’t playing at the end of his reign, but I still had that massive respect for him. That tells you everything about the man.

“It was quite emotional. He looked very sad as well. That shows the level of the man that Brian is and I can’t speak highly enough of him.”

MANCHESTER UNITED: De Gea 6; Smalling 6, Ferdinand 9, Vidic 7, Buttner 7; Welbeck 6, Anderson 5 (Kagawa 84), Giggs 5, Young 6 (Carrick 73); van Persie 5, Rooney 7.

READING: Taylor 6; Kelly 6 (Morrison 87), Pearce 7, Mariappa 6, Shorey 7; Robson-Kanu 6 (Le Fondre 70, 5), Karacan 8, Leigertwood 6, McCleary 5; Hunt 5 (Blackman 70, 5), McAnuff 6.

Referee: Lee Mason 5.