02/05/2009 14:09, Report by Adam Bostock
Sir Alex Ferguson believes United made significant progress towards the Barclays Premier League title by beating Middlesbrough on Saturday.
The Riverside Stadium has been a difficult ground for the Reds in the recent past, even last season when Gareth Southgate's men caused the champions to drop two points. But there seemed little danger of a repeat once Ryan Giggs scored the first goal after 25 minutes.
"Getting in front was the key to it," said Sir Alex.
"I thought we’d have a great chance if we got in front because Middlesbrough are a young side, they’re at the bottom and nerves come into play when they’re playing Manchester United in that situation.
"They had to chase the game and that only opened the game up for us really."
Although the victory looked easy from the sidelines, Sir Alex insists his players had to put in the graft against a home side grappling for points at the wrong end of the table.
"I think it was a very good performance in a sense that the players all worked their socks off," he said.
"We knew it was going to be a difficult type of game because of the position Middlesbrough are in at the moment. We had to withstand the battle - there were a lot of crosses into the box early on - but once we got hold of the ball I thought we always looked a danger."
United's best use of the ball brought a second goal six minutes into the second half when Ji-sung Park latched onto Wayne Rooney's reverse pass and lashed a fine shot into the bottom right-hand corner. It capped another industrious performance from the Korean.
"He's clever, he knows when to time his runs, he knows where space is," said Sir Alex.
"He's been fantastic this season. We just had to give him a rest after he’d been over in Korea for two international games, when he came back a bit jaded. We gave him two weeks off and now he’s back, looking great and fresh."
The Reds are in a great position now, needing only seven of the remaining twelve points on offer to put the title beyond Liverpool's reach.
"It’s a big step forward, with only four games left now," said Sir Alex.
"I keep saying it’s about whittling the games away. Eventually there are no games left and hopefully we’ll be in that position at the top of the league."
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