By Simon Wright – Follow
me on Twitter @Siwri88
Robin van
Persie was the star of the show at Wembley Stadium this afternoon as David
Moyes landed immediate silverware as Manchester United manager.
Moyes’ first
competitive match in charge of the club ended with a comfortable
victory as they overcame Wigan Athletic 2-0 for a 20th triumph in
the history of the Charity or Community Shield.
It was a poor
occasion to mark the first official prize of the season, as the Premier League
champions rarely had to get out of second gear throughout against the FA Cup
winners who were relegated to the Championship at the end of the previous
campaign.
Despite a
disappointing pre-season so far, with just two wins and many unconvincing
performances on their tour of the Far East, the Red Devils were hardly threatened
by their opponents and inserted their authority on the match within six
minutes.
Patrice Evra
delivered a great cross and Van Persie (pictured) guided a beautifully placed header inside
Scott Carson’s post. The Dutchman has
started exactly the same way he finished last season, scoring freely. It is a reminder to Wayne Rooney that he isn’t
the main man now for United.
Despite an
official attendance of over 80,000, the atmosphere was very poor and the game
whistled by without much goalmouth entertainment or excitement from either
side. The heavy favourites managed to wake
up briefly on 58 minutes to wrap up the victory. Van Persie got half a yard in the penalty
area and hit a shot off the left foot of defender James Perch that deflected
off Carson and into the net.
Michael Carrick
put in another solid performance that won him the McDonalds Man of the Match,
and Wilfried Zaha showed sparks of promise too.
The only downside for Moyes was Rafael limping off in the 16th
minute with what looked like an ankle injury after a late challenge from new
Latics signing James McClean.
All in all,
it was a tame opening to the season, and there will be bigger tests for the new
regime at Manchester United, but it is a winning start and that is important
for the fans and the hierarchy at Old Trafford.
FT: Manchester United 2-0 Wigan Athletic
Van Persie 6,
58
Teams
Manchester United: David de Gea, Rafael (Chris Smalling
16), Phil Jones, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Michael Carrick, Tom Cleverley,
Ryan Giggs (Anderson 67), Wilfried Zaha (Antonio Valencia 61), Danny Welbeck (Adnan
Januzaj 83), Robin van Persie (Shinji Kagawa 83)
Wigan Athletic: Scott Carson, James Perch, Emmerson
Boyce, Leon Barnett, Stephen Crainey, Ben Watson (Roger Espinoza 71), James
McArthur (Chris McCann 61), James McCarthy (Nouha Dicko 86), Shaun Maloney
(Jordi Gomez 71), James McClean (Callum McManaman 62), Grant Holt (Marc-Antoine
Fortune 61)
Referee: Mark
Clattenburg
Attendance:
80,235
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