United give Fergie birthday treat

Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo (C) is tackled by Bolton Wanderer's Abdoulaye Faye, during the first half of the English Premiership match at Old Traford, Manchester. Manchester won 4-1.

Manchester United marked Sir Alex Ferguson's 64th birthday with an emphatic 4-1 dismissal of Bolton Wanderers at Old Trafford that confirmed the veteran manager's belief that his side can still play a major role in this season's Premiership title race.

Two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, one from Louis Saha and an own goal from Bolton's Bruno N'Gotty confirmed United's superiority but it was the display of Wayne Rooney that more than anything fuelled the belief that United can yet pressurize runaway leaders Chelsea.

Rooney was simply unstoppable and offered the kind of performance that England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson hopes will illuminate next year's World Cup finals in Germany.

United's desire to make their manager's birthday a memorable one was apparent from the opening minutes when sustained pressure forced the Bolton defence into a series of increasingly desperate clearances before the opening goal came after just eight minutes.

The warning signs had been there for Bolton right from the moment Tal Ben Haim was forced to head away from under his own crossbar to prevent Ronaldo connecting with Ryan Giggs's tempting cross.

And a couple of early shots from Wayne Rooney, including a deflected effort that was hacked off the line by Stelios Giannakopoulos, indicated this could be a long afternoon for the visitors.

But Sam Allardyce's side had only themselves to blame for gifting United the lead. Stelios conceded possession weakly deep in United territory allowing Rio Ferdinand to launch another home attack that culminated in Kieran Richardson's dangerous low cross that was deflected past his own keeper by N'Gotty.

Bolton were reeling and the game would have been over well before the first-half had Rooney and Saha make more of good opportunities to add to United's lead.

Slowly, though, the visitors began to exert a growing influence on the game although their unexpected 33rd minute equaliser owed as much to United's defensive failings as it did to Bolton creative edge.

Ferguson's back-four has looked vulnerable in the air far too often this season and they were undone by a routine long-throw, flicked on by Abdoulaye Faye and headed home by veteran midfielder Gary Speed, unmarked at the far post.

But if the goal gave Bolton hope, they foolishly it away again two minutes before the break when they somehow managed once again to gift the home side the lead, this time through a suicidal Ben Haim back header that allowed Saha to round Jussi Jaaskelainen and sidefoot into an empty net.

From that moment on the outcome was never in doubt and as the second half progressed it became simply a matter of how convincing United's victory would be.

Unsurprisingly it was Rooney who set up Ronaldo for the 68th minute third, shrugging off two Bolton challenges before laying on a cross that granted the Portugese the easiest of opportunities to score.

Then, in the final minutes, Ronaldo again produced a dazzling run that left N'Gotty for dead before drilling home left-footed to revive hopes that United, 11 points adrift, could yet challenge Chelsea.