Carrick happy to score in

Michael Carrick was delighted to put the seal on a crucial victory for the Reds against Portsmouth which put Sir Alex's men three points clear of Liverpool at the league summit.

The substitute latched onto a fine through ball from Paul Scholes to drive home United's second goal which had somehow evaded them for the previous 73 minutes. The Reds had earlier gone ahead through Wayne Rooney's ninth minute strike, but United had to wait until the 82nd for final confirmation of a vital three points.

"The longer it went on at 1-0 the more they started to come into it," Carrick told MUTV. "They had a couple of oppportunities after the break and Edwin had to make a couple of good saves.

"We played some great stuff at times in the first half and some of the link-up play was brilliant. We had a number of chances to go further ahead and that would have put the game to bed. So it was a bit frustrating in that sense. We still played well and from a personal point of view it's always nice to score. It was a quite an important goal at that point so I was pleased to get it."

Despite being in the title race driving seat following Liverpool's dropping of two points against Arsenal on Tuesday night, Carrick maintains there is still hard work to be done between now and the season finale.

"Liverpool's draw was a big boost and we're in a decent position now," says the midfielder. "Hopefully we can keep the momentum going between now and the end of the season and put the league to bed as quickly as we can. There are big games coming up thick and ast and we need to be at our best in all of them."