United field full-strength side

Alex Ferguson went back on his pre-match threat to field a weakened side by throwing virtually all his main men at Blackburn tonight.

The United boss retained just a single member of his starting line-up from the FA Cup draw at Burton as the Red Devils looked to seize control of their Carling Cup semi-final.

Only Louis Saha kept his place, with Ruud van Nistelrooy on the bench, where he was joined by new signing Patrice Evra.

Having already dumped Bryan Robson and Steve Bruce’s sides out of the competition, Ferguson was looking to complete an old-boy hat-trick by eliminating Mark Hughes’ men, who had Shefki Kuqi in attack instead of Paul Dickov.

Blackburn v Man Utd teams

Blackburn: Friedel, Neill, Todd, Nelsen, Gray, Bentley, Savage, Tugay, Pedersen, Kuqi, Bellamy.

Subs: Enckelman, Khizanishvili, Emerton, Dickov, Reid.

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Silvestre, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Smith, Giggs, Rooney, Saha.

Subs: Howard, van Nistelrooy, O’Shea, Bardsley, Rossi.

Referee: R Styles (Hampshire)