Masterly United hand out a savage reminder to title rivals
On the eve of their history-making 9-0 destruction of Ipswich Town a year ago Manchester United thundered another timely championship warning.
Twelve months ago it was Blackburn Rovers feeling the ominous blast of the Reds sending out a warning that the heat was really on.
Ewood Park's former Manchester City defender Colin Hendry felt the shock waves last season from that Old Trafford demolition and after watching a United display he described as "awesome" he declared: " It was the sort of performance that shows the team at the top how serious you are about the championship."
Fergie's Verdict
It was a good performance, I am happy with it. We got a good start and you can't ask for better than that.
The third goal killed them really. We did really well in the first 15 minutes but then got scrappy and careless with a lot of our passing.
In the first 15 minutes of the second half we started keeping the ball a bit better.
I couldn't see any goals coming but I thought we had at least consolidated our position and we weren't going to lose it. At that point I thought I'd settle for 2-0.
When Andy Cole scored the third it opened the floodgates and their heads went down maybe and we punished them with some really good football.
So it was a good day and a good scoreline for us.
It was a good performance but at times we had to dig in and defend well because they had good service into the box.
I wouldn't have thought we could have scored six here today because I saw them a couple of weeks ago against Leeds and they played very well. I said to our team that if you allow Bolton time and comfort on the ball then they'll play all right. They've got plenty of technically good players.
Man of the Match
Roy Keane. He broke down Bolton's attacks and started United's.
