MANCHESTER United went three points clear at the top of the Premier League thanks to goals from Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick against Portsmouth.
Rooney struck after just nine minutes and substitute Carrick sealed the win with just eight minutes remaining.
The only negatives on the night for United were injuries sustained by Gary Neville - who lasted just 13 minutes - and his replacement John O'Shea.
United are now three points ahead of second-placed Liverpool with a game in hand. Chelsea could only draw with Everton and now trail the Reds by six points having played a game more.
It was supposed to be a night of celebration for Paul Scholes who reached a landmark 600 appearances for United but he was upstaged by his fellow Old Trafford veteran Ryan Giggs.
Giggs, the club's all time record appearance maker, could play his 800th match for the Reds at the weekend against Tottenham at Old Trafford but he chose Scholes' milestone occasion to roll back the years and steal the show.
The 35-year-old is chasing an 11th title that would sit nicely alongside the No.11 shirt he has worn throughout his 18-years as an Old Trafford first teamer and his virtuoso first half performance settled any nerves that may still be jangling in the champions camp as the race for the Premier League crown gets ever more twitchy.
Familiar
Giggs was even back again on familiar wing territory and with Brian Kidd in the Portsmouth dug-out and constantly barking out orders in the technical area it really was a night of nostalgia at Old Trafford.
Kiddo helped nurture Giggs and Scholes through their formative United years and were Pompey still not completely safe from a potential late collapse into the relegation fight he might well have enjoyed a night of memories.
After coming in for some heavy flak for his over use of United's young guns in the FA Cup semi final at Wembley on Sunday it was somewhat ironic that it was one of Sir Alex Ferguson's old stagers who should grab the limelight. Giggs was pulling on a United jersey in high profile matches before some of Sunday's performers were even born!
Anderson, too, looked like he fancied a bit of attention on Scholes' evening as well. The Brazilian had put in a magnificent two hour stint on the draining Wembley turf at the weekend but didn't appear to have any physical hangover from the gruelling afternoon.
It was the Anderson-Giggs combination helped set up an easy night for the Reds against a Portsmouth side who had all the hallmarks of a Kiddo passing team but never had the punch to hurt United.
Anderson's excellent ball in the ninth minute floated into Giggs' path and the Welshman took the ball on his chest. He then picked out Wayne Rooney's dart into the box for a simple side foot execution.
Command
From then on it very much became the Giggs show and United were so in command and in little danger of throwing this away that it was easy to forget the title battle was still supposed to be in heart-stopping mode.
Having one assist in the bag Giggs looked to add a few more to his personal stats and his crossing almost set one up for Cristiano Ronaldo. But for an eagle-eyed referee's assistant's flag he would have carved out another goal for Rooney but the striker had already been pulled up when he planted his shot home.
Old Trafford was willing Giggs to score and after being put in by Rooney after 31 minutes his chip didn't clear the advancing David James in the one-to-one showdown. He almost ran the ball home late in the first half after a wayward Sol Campbell header set Ronaldo racing away.
Just in case the title fight were to get close to being decided on goal difference this seemed a perfect opportunity for the Reds to eat into Liverpool's superior figures - but instead the Reds went through a patch where they risked losing points let alone the chance to peg the Anfielde side's goal advantage.
Crouch had a couple of half chances to help his former Merseyside team-mates as the Reds became sloppy.
It was at that point that Scholes obviously decided he had better produce a bit of old style magic himself so as not to disappoint ss he joined the Old Trafford 600-club.
He produced a moment of visionary magic to thread a wonderful ball through to Carrick who dutifully finished off and ended any thoughts that the Reds might throw this one away.
What is your verdict on the game? Have your say.
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dr_hadi, kuwait (22/04/2009 at 22:02)
man utd are the most benificiary team in this week
arsenal, liverpool, and chelsea all drew
but united should be carefull cuz the remaining games until the end of the seasons are relatively harder than the ones remaining for liverpool
we should focus,,and try to win every game
liverpool will play with west ham,,,totenham, newcastle, west brom, and hull
i cant see them wasting points with thease teams,,,
so up your game united and way to goal.
Hilal Sued, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (22/04/2009 at 22:06)
danny, WILMSLOW (22/04/2009 at 22:10)
Strange the best player on the pitch Anderson played at Wembley also Rapha its a pity the oldies Fergie plays do not put in the same amount of effort Rooney is the exception.Giggs did a lot of running but should have done much better.
Now its title over and Macheda should get the thanks for that he would have got a hat trick today.
Berbatov must be the hidden weapon.
danny, WILMSLOW (22/04/2009 at 22:11)
BALL AND BAT, ALL OVER (22/04/2009 at 22:15)
RedHeart (22/04/2009 at 22:19)
Fletcher, Anderson, Rooney, Giggs were great imo. Feel the boys did well after all the drama of the week. But what would that score have been had we put away our chances. Must say though I am happy to at least see us creating so many again. Is our attack more damaging without Berbatov or were Portsmouth just poor?? Thats the speed we will need to play Arsenal at imho. One game at a time lads. Don't get ahead of ourselves. Focus and level headedness is what we need now. Well done boys.
Shola, Helsinki, Finland (22/04/2009 at 22:22)
Nice pass from Scholes.
Nice game although we almost threaded a dangerous path.
AS, Ipswich (22/04/2009 at 22:26)
Zizi, Coventry, UK (22/04/2009 at 22:36)
MARS BAR SWINDON (22/04/2009 at 23:11)
Bfast Red, Belfast (22/04/2009 at 23:25)
Still clean sheet and 3 points so no complaints.
ENGINEER, Heywood (23/04/2009 at 00:17)
davmac, manchester (23/04/2009 at 00:20)
Karl Pilkington, M'm not sure. (23/04/2009 at 00:29)
T.LESS, SALE (23/04/2009 at 00:35)
Serge, Europe (23/04/2009 at 00:44)
Rooney did well but most of all I am thrilled Anderson, our best midfield player by FAR, is getting a run out, he can tackle, intercept, make passes (what a beauty the pass to Giggs) and score (penalties:))
Seamus, Vanisle,ex-Stretford (23/04/2009 at 01:21)
Cav, Winnipeg,Canada (23/04/2009 at 01:53)
Cantona's Collar, West Lancs (23/04/2009 at 02:03)
A bit of a stroll really - i didn't think we were under any pressure from them at all. It's the "same old same old" though, get that 1st goal and watch we don't sit-back just in case. Always feel happier when that 2nd goal goes in
Brill cross from Anderson to Giggsy setting up the 1st goal.
Nearly home and dry - which will make Manuel at Anfield cry ! There's a strong possibility that the Blue half of Merseyside will be the team picking up silverware !
Who cares even though we haven't played at our best this season we are still up there. Keep going boys.
Raju, Katmandu (23/04/2009 at 02:56)
peachymonk, singapore (23/04/2009 at 05:38)
Always worried when comes close to 90mins while still leading 1 goal...
Sparky was the best ever (23/04/2009 at 05:52)
bobbydazzler (23/04/2009 at 06:55)
Davey Boy, Kuwait (23/04/2009 at 07:01)
Brian, Brussels (23/04/2009 at 08:31)