Rooney back on target as United crush Hammers

Wayne Rooney ended his goal drought to inspire Manchester United’s 3-0 victory over West Ham on Saturday and offer England manager Fabio Capello a rare piece of good news.

Capello and England start their qualifying campaign for the Euro 2012 on Friday under intense pressure and they will do so with Rooney having ended the least productive goalscoring period of his career.

With Capello a spectator at Old Trafford, there were signs that Rooney’s customary sharpness is returning as he also had a hand in setting up the second goal for Nani before Dimitar Berbatov completed the win.

The England forward had not found the net since scoring against Bayern Munich at the end of March, a sequence that amounted to 1,081 minutes and 13 games for club and country and included the disastrous World Cup campaign in South Africa.

But after 32 minutes, Jonathan Spector produced a blatant trip on Ryan Giggs and, following a miss by Nani from the spot when Rooney was absent against Fulham last week, Rooney strode up and comfortably beat Robert Green from the penalty spot.

The goal had been building steadily over the opening half hour with Nani, in particular, a thorn in West Ham’s side.

West Ham boss Avram Grant had assigned Luis Boa Morte to perform a man-to-man marking job on in-form Paul Scholes but Nani was the United midfielder for whom the visitors had no answer.

Nani had already placed a free-kick just over the crossbar from 18 yards before his terrific right-foot strike from the edge of the area was punched to safety, via the post, by Green.

Just before the opening goal, Kieron Dyer shot into the side-netting at the other end, but that was a rare sortie into enemy territory for a Hammers side with containment in mind.

That task was looking more and more difficult as the first half progressed and, after going in front, United should have gone into the interval with a far more comfortable cushion.

A Giggs cross was headed out to Darren Fletcher whose vicious strike was well kept out by Green, before Giggs picked out Berbatov in a scoring position only for the Bulgarian to see his shot twice blocked.

Nani was also played clear by Scholes, in injury-time, but, with only Green to beat, lifted his shot over the bar.

Within five minutes of the restart Nani had the goal his first half performance had merited as he netted an effort that underlined United’s complete superiority.

Nani was allowed to run through, collecting a neat pass from Rooney 25 yards out.

Danny Gabbidon then fell over to allow Nani to take the ball into the area and place an unstoppable finish past Green.

Gabbidon made some amends with an important stop on Rooney, who was growing in confidence, but West Ham errors were not the exclusive preserve of the defence.

Dyer, for the second time in the match, found himself in a good shooting position but side-footed wide of the home goal.

There were opportunities for Berbatov, Paul Scholes and Giggs before United completed the rout with the pick of their goals.

Nani hung a teasing far-post cross in the air long enough for Berbatov to connect with a spectacular, close-range volley into the net after 69 minutes.