Fergie delight at Rooney treble

21 July 2011 07:30

Sir Alex Ferguson has praised Wayne Rooney's work ethic after the Manchester United striker bagged a second-half hat-trick in a 7-0 romp over Seattle Sounders.

Introduced as a second-half substitute, Rooney wasted no time in making his mark, finding the net three times within the space of 21 minutes to signal his well-being ahead of the new campaign.

"It is nice he scored," said Ferguson. "We are pleased for all the goalscorers but three goals is a nice start for him. He has worked hard. He has done really well in training."

Michael Owen, Mame Biram Diouf, Park Ji-sung and Gabriel Obertan also found the net and Ferguson wants to see a similar spread of firepower across the season as a whole.

"Last year we depended on three players for our goals, so that was good tonight," he said.

However, as Ferguson acknowledged, it was a "strange" contest given United's two goalkeepers, Anders Lindegaard and Ben Amos, were both called on to make a series of excellent stops, proving they are not going to let David de Gea cement the job of Edwin van der Sar's replacement without some significant competition.

"Obviously we have signed David de Gea as the main choice I would imagine," said Ferguson.

"But Anders Lindegaard and Ben Amos have probably said to themselves they have an opportunity with Van der Sar retiring.

"It is an open door for me.

"De Gea will play on Saturday against Chicago but they will all get their fair share of games and the decision on who starts the season will depend on how De Gea settles."

Source: PA