Manchester United 1 Sunderland 0

Nov 6 2011 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

WES BROWN was the unwitting guest of honour as Sir Alex Ferguson celebrated his 25 years in charge at Manchester United with a win.

The ex-Man U star’s return to Old Trafford was wrecked by his first-half own-goal, which gifted his old boss a victory to mark his milestone.

Fergie was given a terrific reception by both the Man U and Sunderland fans as he strode on to the pitch before the game, before chief executive David Gill surprised the Scot by announcing that the club will rename the giant North Stand in honour of the club’s longest-serving and most successful manager.

But after that, the party would have fallen flat had it not been for the unfortunate Brown’s intervention.

You can be certain that the post-match bottle of wine shared by Fergie and Steve Bruce was of a far better vintage than this unconvincing performance by the champions.

And if the Black Cats had made the most of the chances that came their way and, crucially, if referee Lee Mason had not changed his mind after awarding Sunderland a second-half penalty, it could have been a very different outcome.

As it was, Sunderland suffered their fifth defeat in 11 games and their problems were compounded by a potentially long-term knee ligament injury to £8m teenager Connor Wickham, who was stretchered off just two minutes into the match.

Bruce said in midweek that Sunderland would not be content to defend at Old Trafford and he was as good as his word.

He played 4-4-2 and made two changes to the side that started last weekend’s draw against Aston Villa, both of which were forced upon him.

Keiren Westwood made his first Premier League start in goal, replacing Simon Mignolet, who broke his nose and fractured his eye socket against Villa. And Lee Cattermole came back into the side to take the place of groin injury victim David Vaughan.

After naming a much-changed side for the Champions League win over Otelul Galati in midweek, Fergie reverted to a similar side to that which began against Everton a week ago.

There were still three changes to the team that faced the Toffeemen, however, with Anders Lindegaard replacing David De Gea in goal, Rio Ferdinand coming in for former Sunderland loanee Jonny Evans and Nani taking the place of Tom Cleverley.

England striker Danny Welbeck, who spent last season on loan with the Wearsiders, started wide on the left for the home team.

Sunderland’s afternoon got off to a terrible start when Wickham appeared to catch his studs in the turf as he tried to charge down a clearance from Ferdinand.

The England Under-21 star twisted his knee and had to be replaced by Korea international Ji Dong-Won.

The Red Devils barely threatened Sunderland for the majority of the first half, and it was the Black Cats who created by far the better chances.

Seb Larsson had a shot on the turn from the right side of the box deflected into the sidenetting on 14 minutes.