Manchester United 4 Stoke 2

Man­chester Uni­ted 4 Sto­ke City 2, Old Traf­ford, Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue, Oct­ober 20, 2012. Sir Al­ex Fer­guson com­pli­men­ted his play­ers for their de­term­in­a­tion and work eth­ic ag­ainst Sto­ke City. A Way­ne Roo­ney double and a goal each by fel­low stri­kers Robin van Per­sie and Dan­ny Wel­beck ev­entually help­ed Man­chester Uni­ted to a 4-2 win over The Potters.

Man­chester Uni­ted now had eight­een points from eight fix­tures, but The Reds re­mained four points be­hind Pre­mier Lea­gue lead­ers Chel­sea who ma­naged to over­come Lon­don rivals Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur by 4-2 at White Hart Lane thanks to a brace from Ju­an Ma­ta and a goal apiece from Ga­ry Ca­hill and Dan­iel Stur­ridge. And al­though Sir Al­ex Fer­guson was greatly im­pressed wi­th the over­all per­form­ance of his Man­chester Uni­ted si­de, the Old Traf­ford man­ager tho­ught that they should have sco­red more goals than they ac­tu­ally did. Sir Al­ex Fer­guson: “It was really slack play at the be­gin­ning of the mat­ch, but once we got go­ing and we got the equal­iser we cer­tainly played some great foot­ball. We should have had more goals, but we re­covered well from los­ing one early and I have got to be pleased wi­th that. For Way­ne Roo­ney and Dan­ny Wel­beck, get­ting off the ma­rk for the sea­son will help. Roo­ney will get bet­ter wi­th the ga­mes and so will Van Per­sie. Robin did­n’t have any pre-sea­son ga­mes and Way­ne was out for a whi­le wi­th his in­jury, so the more ga­mes the bet­ter.” Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Da­vid de Gea, Ra­fael da Silva, Jon­athan Evans, Rio Fer­dinand, Pat­rice Ev­ra, An­tonio Va­lencia, Paul Scho­les, Mi­chael Car­rick, Way­ne Roo­ney, Dan­ny Wel­beck, Robin van Per­sie. Sub­stitutes: An­ders Linde­gaard, Scott Woot­ton, Oli­veira An­der­son, Ry­an Gig­gs, Lu­is Nani, Nick Pow­ell, Javi­er Her­nandez. Sto­ke City Te­am: As­mir Be­gov­ic, Ro­bert Huth, Ry­an Shaw­cross, Ge­off Camer­on, Marc Wil­son, Char­lie Ad­am, Ste­ven N’Zonzi, Dean White­head, Mi­chael Kightly, Jon Wal­ters, Pe­ter Crouch. Sub­stitutes: Tho­mas Sor­ensen, Andy Wilkin­son, Mat­thew Up­son, Mat­thew Eth­er­ing­ton, Wil­son Pala­cios, Ken­wyne Jones, Mi­chael Owen.

Manchester United Quickfacts

Af­ter los­ing 3-0 away ag­ainst Ar­senal on the open­ing day of the 1973-74 cam­paign, Man­chester Uni­ted be­at Sto­ke City 1-0 in their fir­st ho­me fix­ture of the new sea­son thanks to Ste­ve Ja­mes who net­ted one his rare goals for The Reds when the cent­ral de­fender hit the win­ner in the 20th min­ute of play.

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