Alan Pardew gives his view of today's events at the Boleyn
Alan PardewWayne Rooney? Perhaps it was fitting that he put in a performance like that after all the George Best tributes today. I thought they set the scene for a great game today. It was nice to see Sir Trevor Brooking and Sir Bobby Charlton out there before and the way the West Ham fans responded was superb. It set up the game. Man United were at full tilt today, make no mistake about that, Rooney in particular. Maybe he deserved to wear the number 7 on his back today – he was that good.
From our point of view there were a lot of positives to come out of today. We felt the full force of a top team today. They certainly gave us more problems defensively than we’ve had all season. Our goalie had to play very well. We’re disappointed with the goal but otherwise he was brilliant. Our two centre halves had a real test today and Anton in particular I thought was terrific. We had a lot of positives – Matty Etheringon’s performance was good but ultimately we came up against a side that was better than us.
It was a dream start. Marlon took it well and it was a great ball in from Matty. It’s the sort of start you need against Man Utd. It focussed their minds a bit. We were positive in the first half and I thought we might even get a second on the break even though they were dominating possession. The quick goal in the second half really hurt us though and we lost a little bit of belief. Rooney was unstoppable at times.
NB Manchester United declined to send a representative to the post-match press conference
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