MATCH PRESSBOX - THE GUARDIAN

Last updated : 28 August 2006 By Ed

Rio Ferdinand might have damaged a toe but Manchester United rarely broke sweat as they continued their sanguine start with a matter-of-fact win against a fitful Watford who failed to produce the intensity of performance the occasion demanded.

Fate and the fixture list have decreed that Sir Alex Ferguson's latest attempt to regain the title, which last went to Old Trafford three years ago, should begin amid the Premiership's foothills. Apart from home encounters with Arsenal and Liverpool United's early opponents are of the type more likely to seek survival than glory.

Had United's finishing matched the excellence of their build-ups Watford would surely have been punished as heavily as Fulham, beaten 5-1 on the opening day, or Charlton Athletic, swept aside 3-0 in midweek. Instead Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo squandered chances to put the contest beyond Watford's reach long before the final whistle.

Then again, with Ruud van Nistelrooy departed and Wayne Rooney suspended, Ferguson is reputedly short of strikers just now. Not that one would know it with 10 goals scored by eight different players in the first week. The only caveat to be offered is that United won their first three fixtures last season then gained only two wins in the next seven.

At least the narrowness of United's lead on Saturday offered a modicum of hope to Adrian Boothroyd's newly promoted team until the closing seconds when Watford might have forced an unlikely draw had Marlon King managed to get his head to a ball nodded on by Daniel Shittu from Lloyd Doyley's long throw-in. The moment had Ferguson haranguing all and sundry from the touchline. Boothroyd was asked whether the old hairdryer had said anything to him: "Yeah, he said 'Get out of my way.'"

Michael Carrick, in his first game as a United player, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, starting for the first time in two years, played steadily enough yet Ferguson did not think much of his team's performance overall. "When we counter-attacked we should have passed the ball better," he complained. "We're normally good at this but that quality deserted us in these moments. It really needed somebody to put their foot on the ball and enjoy passing the ball but I didn't think they did that today."

Presumably Ryan Giggs was excluded from such criticism. The 32-year-old Welshman has begun the season in vintage form and on Saturday consistently reminded Vicarage Road of what is meant by the term "commanding the ball". Giggs did just that, turning up in space all over the pitch to gain possession and dictate the pace and pattern of United's movements.