Ronaldo double, United beats Hull Sunday, November 02, 2008
Cristiano Ronaldo was back to his best as Manchester United defeated Phil Brown's high-flying Hull City 4-3 at Old Trafford.
The champions had romped to a 4-1 lead through goals from Michael Carrick, Nemanja Vidic and a double from the Portuguese winger, but Phil Brown's side launched a valiant late comeback scoring twice late-on to push Sir Alex Ferguson's side to the wire.
Hull showed the grit and determination that has made them a success story so far this season when Bernard Mendy and Deiberson Geovanni scored late-on for the visitors, but United held on to close their gap on league leaders Liverpool, who play later this evening away at Spurs.
The Tigers started the game ahead of United in the Premier League table despite their 3-0 loss against Chelsea mid-week and had an unbeaten away record to take to Old Trafford.
But just as they did against Chelsea, the Championship play-off winners conceded early on when Ronaldo latched on to teammate Dimitar Berbatov's miss-hit shot and prodded the ball past Hull keeper Boaz Myhill after just two minutes.
Hull then equalised mid-way through the first half through Daniel Cousin who headed Andy Dawson's free-kick past the flailing hands of United keeper van der Sar.
On his return from injury, Carrick put the champions back in front minutes later and Ronaldo grabbed his second on the stroke of half-time to add further claim to his hopes of becoming FIFA World Player of the Year.
Poor defending allowed Vidic to volley Rooney's corner goalward and give United a 4-1 lead after the break, but Hull weren't prepared to give-up their unbeaten record away from home in their first Premier League season.
Mendy's strike made it 4-2 and then a Rio Ferdinand's foul in the box enabled Geovanni to score a penalty to make it 4-3 with nine minutes remaining.
Wayne Rooney was booked late-on but the champions held their nerve to hold on for the victory.
