United Stay Top with Valley Victory

Goalscorer
By Chris O'Brien
August 24 2006

Second-half goals from Darren Fletcher, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave the Red Devils a 3-0 victory at Charlton Athletic. This superb victory against Iain Dowie's men, mixed with Chelsea's defeat at Middlesbrough, made sure it was a fantastic night for Manchester United.

Manchester United continued their excellent start to the Premiership season with a 3-0 drubbing of Charlton Athletic - and were then boosted by the news that title rivals Chelsea had been beaten at Middlesbrough.

Second half goals from Darren Fletcher, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer secured that the Red Devils maintained their winning record for the new campaign, putting Sir Alex Ferguson's men two points clear at the top of the Premier League table.

In the absence of Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes through suspension, Fergie was forced into making changes. John O'Shea partnered Ryan Giggs in the centre of midfield, with Ji-Sung Park and Fletcher operating the flanks. Cristiano Ronaldo played just behind lone striker Saha, whilst Mikael Silvestre replaced the injured Gary Neville.

United started brightly with Park firing a shot straight at Charlton's debutant goalkeeper Scott Carson. Giggs then struck the post with a superb 20-yard free-kick, whilst Ronaldo was causing havoc amongst the home side's defence as the Reds showed plenty of attacking threat.

However, Charlton will feel hard done by that they were denied a penalty as the ball twice struck the arm of left-back Patrice Evra, but a relentless United ended the half stronger and Ronaldo went so close as he slammed a 25-yard effort onto the crossbar. The Addicks, under the leadership of new boss Iain Dowie, were delighted to hear Chris Foy's half-time whistle.

The deadlock was broken only three minutes after the interval, through the unlikely scorer Fletcher. The Scotsman took advantage of Charlton's inability to clear a Park cross as he slotted home a neat finish and give the visitors a deserved lead.

Charlton were denied another penalty shout on the hour with replays showing Wesley Brown handling the ball in his own box, but in truth, their appeals for a spot-kick were the closest Dowie's men came to finding a way onto the scoresheet.

United were playing with confidence and looked to kill off the game. Park was the third Reds player to strike the post before Saha seemingly made the points safe with a well-taken finish. The French international struck an excellent left-foot effort passed Carson before substitute Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, to the delight of the travelling supporters, fired home a Saha cross from an acute angle.

Another superb performance from United and another display of our new-found free-flowing, attacking football. Next up is Saturday's home clash against Watford, thankfully a rare 3pm kick-off, and United will have the chance to take their tally to nine points against the newly-promoted Hornets.

Full Time - Charlton Athletic 0-3 Manchester United
Attendance - 25,422

Charlton: Carson, Young, El Karkouri, Fortune, Hreidarsson, Hughes, Holland, Faye (Rommedahl 82), Ambrose, Hasselbaink (Marcus Bent 65), Darren Bent.
Substitutes Not Used: Myhre, Kishishev, Lisbie.

Manchester United: Van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Silvestre, Evra, Fletcher, Park (Carrick 77), O'Shea, Giggs (Solskjaer 82), Saha, Ronaldo.
Substitutes Not Used: Kuszczak, Rossi, Richardson.