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Man U reserves cruise to victory Reds stay in first with 3-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday
Posted: Saturday April 17, 1999 02:04 PM
LONDON (AP) -- Manchester United's backup players opened up a four-point lead at the top of the Premier League on Saturday after rolling to a 3-0 victory over full-strength Sheffield Wednesday. Three days after his team's memorable FA Cup semifinal victory over Arsenal and with a Champions Cup semifinal confrontation with Juventus looming on Wednesday United manager Alex Ferguson rested half of his regulars. He sent out a team without Peter Schmeichel, Dennis Irwin, Dwight Yorke, David Beckham, Andy Cole, Ryan Giggs and Ronny Johnsen. But the reserves still outplayed Wednesday at Old Trafford with goals from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Teddy Sheringham and Paul Scholes within the first 62 minutes. With defending titlist Arsenal and Cup Winners Cup semifinalist Chelsea not in action on Saturday, the win gave United 67 points from 32 games. The Gunners, who host Wimbledon on Monday, and Chelsea, who welcomes Leicester on Sunday, both have 63 from 32. At the bottom, Nottingham Forest lost for the 21st time, 1-0 at home to Tottenham, but still hasn't yet lost its Premier League place because of other results. Next-to-last Southampton and second-from-last Blackburn tied 3-3 in a thriller at the Delland. Meanwhile, Charlton held fourth-place Leeds to a 1-1 tie. That means Ron Atkinson's last-place team, which is 10 points adrift of the rest and 12 short of safety, still has a mathematical chance of staying up. That could go on Tuesday if Charlton gains a point against Tottenham. Everton, which has not been relegated since 1954, moved closer to safety with a 3-1 win at FA Cup finalist Newcastle. Kevin Campbell on loan from Turkish club Trabzonspor, scored after 42 seconds and added another before half time and, after Alan Shearer had netted a penalty for the Magpies, Scot Gemmill added the third for the Toffees. But Coventry stayed in danger after losing 2-1 at home to Middlesbrough. Vladimir Kinder and Dean Gordon hit the goals for Boro and veteran Scottish midfielder Gary McAllister replied for the Sky Blues who have 37 points, the same as Everton. Charlton and Blackburn have 32 and Southampton has 31. Aston Villa's mini-revival after a dramatic slide from the top continued with a 1-0 win at Liverpool. Ian Taylor's first half goal gave John Gregory a second win in a row after a run of 10 winless matches and his team stayed in fifth place. West Ham remained sixth despite a 5-1 crushing of sixth-place Derby. Paolo Di Canio started the goal charge with the first and veteran striker Ian Wright came off the bench to add the third. There was a pre-kickoff minute's silence at games throughout the in remembrance of the victims of the Hillsborough tragedy 10 years ago. On April 15, 1989, 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death at the FA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium. With Sunderland already sure of a return to the Premier League, the focus in division one is on the second automatic promotion place and the two leading contenders, Bradford and Ipswich, who are tied on points both lost. Bradford lost 3-2 at home to Huddersfield and Ipswich tumbled 2-0 at Bolton, which is chasing promotion through the playoffs. There was fan trouble at the 2-2 tie between West Bromwich Albion and Portsmouth when a home fan ran onto the field and attacked a linesman. The incident happened after the official had not flagged that a shot by West Brom's Kevin Kilbane had taken a deflection for a corner. The fan ran onto the field and knocked the linesman over before he was wrestled to the ground by Albion substitute Paul Mardon, who was warming up. Scottish champion Celtic edged Motherwell 1-0 thanks to a penalty by Swedish striker Henrik Larsson and cut Rangers lead to three points. Rangers can regain its six-point advantage by beating Dundee on Sunday.
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