5 Star United Thump Palace

By David Hobbs
December 18 2004

Manchester United got back to winning ways following a midweek draw to Fulham, bouncing back in style to thump Crystal Palace 5-2 at Old Trafford. A Paul Scholes brace, an Alan Smith header, an Emmerson Boyce own-goal and a late John O'Shea strike sealed the victory.

5 Star United Thump Palace

Manchester United 4
Scholes 22, 48
Smith 35
Boyce OG 47
O'Shea 90

Crystal Palace 2
Grandville 27
Kolkka 46

Manchester United got back to winning ways following a midweek draw to Fulham, bouncing back in style to thump Crystal Palace 5-2 at Old Trafford.

A Paul Scholes brace, an Alan Smith header an Emmerson Boyce own-goal and a late John O'Shea strike sealed the victory after Chelsea also hit 4 past Norwich earlier on in the day. The Blues managed to keep a clean sheet however.

Quinton Fortune and Darren Fletcher took the places of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gabriel Heinze as both Ronaldo and Heinze have been given a leave of absence during the festive period.

Just 7 minutes in, Scottish winger Darren Fletcher was hacked down by Palace's Danny Grandville and referee Steve Dunn had no option but to award The Red Devils a deserved penalty. Wayne Rooney stepped up to the spot but cruelly had his placed spot-kick blocked by the impressive Gabor Kiraly.

Later in the first period Paul Scholes continued his rich vein of goalscoring form, unleashing an unstoppable shot from just outside the 18 yard box. Skipper Roy Keane played the architect by picking out the pass to Scholes.

United's lead was short-lived however as Palace struck an almost instant reply. Wayne Routledge's inswinging corner was converted by Grandville, making up for the penalty he conceded earlier on in the game. John O'Shea had to replace an injured Quinton Fortune 32 minutes in.

Roy Keane was in the thick of things yet again as he nearly fired in his 50th goal for Manchester United, but Kiraly tipped the shot over for a corner.

After a string of goal-line scrambles, Scholes' set-piece was cleanly headed past a hapless Kiraly by Alan Smith from some distance to fire back United's lead and see off an eventful first period.

The second half proved to be as exciting and as lively as the first with Joonas Kolkka equalizing for Iain Dowie's side with just a matter of seconds since the second half got underway. Michael Hughes swung in a cross for the Finn to head home.

2 minutes later, Wayne Rooney's effort was punched away by Kiraly to Paul Scholes, whose header may have taken a deflection off Emmerson Boyce to find the back of the net. Scholes will want to claim the goal.

Amazingly, Paul Scholes grabbed another in front of the Stretford End as Alan Smith's pass found Scholes, who was waiting to poke home from 6 yards.

Substitute John O'Shea combined with Ryan Giggs to hit a 5th goal past Gabor Kiraly with seconds to go.

Final Score: Manchester United 5 - Crystal Palace 2
Att: 67,814

Manchester United: R Carroll, G Neville, R Ferdinand, M Silvestre, Q Fortune (32 J O'Shea) , D Fletcher, P Scholes, R Keane, R Giggs, W Rooney, A Smith. Subs: T Howard, P Neville, D Bellion, L Miller, J O'Shea

Crystal Palace: G Kiraly, E Boyce, G Sorondo, F Hall, D Granville, W Routledge (81 W Andrews) , A Riihilahti (69 T Soares) , B Watson, M Hughes (69 V Lakis) , J Kolkka, A Johnson. Subs: J Speroni, T Popovic, T Soares, W Andrews, V Lakis

Refereed By: S Dunn