Points, not goals, the priority for United

London, Oct 3: Manchester United's tight 1-0 victory over Roma in the Champions League was a far cry from the magnificent seven they put past the Serie A side last season but nobody is moaning at Old Trafford.

Wayne Rooney's first goal of the season yesterday put United top of Group F with six points from two games and made it six 1-0 victories in the last eight games for the Reds.

''Of course I'd prefer to score more goals, but we've won 1-0 and you still get the same number of points no matter if the score is 1-0, 7-1 or 2-0,'' French left back Patrice Evra told United's TV station MUTV.

''It's still three points and I'm happy with that. I'm also very happy for Wayne Rooney. He's worked hard to come back from injury and it's great to see him score.

''We played this game with a lot of professionalism and I'm delighted to win 1-0.'' Striker Louis Saha, who started a match for the first time since February because of injury, agreed that the result was more important than putting on a dashing performance.

''The main concern is always three points,'' Saha told MUTV. ''We do want to get back to scoring goals because we are Manchester United and that's what this club is all about, but sometimes the main thing is the result.'' United were not at their fluent best against a Roma side who wasted several good chances in the second half and Rooney suggested they had been fortunate to get the three points.

''We played OK, but Roma did well and the fair result was a draw, fortunately we managed to hold on,'' Rooney said.

United, who can go top of the Premier League if they beat Wigan Athletic on Saturday, now face back-to-back matches against pointless Dynamo Kiev, hoping to reach the 10 points that manager Alex Ferguson says will be enough to reach the knockout stages.

Reuters>