Goal king Berbatov salutes gritty United

Aston Villa defeats Wigan 2-1 in the Premier League.

BLACKPOOL: Dimitar Berbatov hailed Manchester United’s mental strength after his brace helped Sir Alex Ferguson’s side come from two goals down to beat Blackpool 3-2. Blackpool went into the break 2-0 up thanks to goals from Craig Cathcart and DJ Campbell, but United produced another of their famous late comebacks as Berbatov and Javier Hernandez ensured the leaders remain unbeaten in the Premier League this season.

“We have the mentality that we can win even when we are 1-0 or 2-0 down,” said Berbatov. “We are always confident that if we can score one, we can score even more. The first-half was not so good for us but in the second-half we had a very good game.”

United were all at sea until Ferguson replaced Wayne Rooney with Hernandez and that proved to make a huge difference as United turned the game on its head in the space of 15 minutes.

Blackpool manager Ian Holloway was furious with referee Peter Walton for not awarding his side a penalty straight after the break when Rafael tackled Luke Varney in the United penalty area.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa’s Darren Bent was the main man once again as Gerard Houllier’s side defeated Wigan 2-1.  Although Bent did not score, his dynamic presence up front encouraged Villa to produce the kind of attacking display that had been missing from his side. Goals from Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young put Villa 2-0 up and James McCarthy replied for Wigan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th,  2011.