Scholes supplies missing link to boys of '94

Short of having Owen Hargreaves delivered to his front door wrapped in red paper with matching ribbon, nothing will have delighted Sir Alex Ferguson more on this 20th anniversary weekend of his Manchester United managership than this season's return to the team, and to top form of course, of Paul Scholes.

How crucial a fit Scholes is to United's wellbeing. Though his role was mainly a quiet one in United's elegant dissection of Portsmouth, the quality of the man marked his every contribution. The centre circle is his operations room when battle was not raging at either end, and Scholes is the archetypal snaffler of midfield bits and pieces through his ability to anticipate not the next pass, but the one after that.

Though a shy man off the pitch, Scholes is not reticent about offering advice, or instruction, on it. When he feels a defender should bring the ball out, Scholes beckons him on, ushering him forward before taking up position to take the move on with the minimum of effort. Not that he does not know when to get the foot in, and sometimes leave it there.

His main concern against Portsmouth, perhaps in every game, is to offer regular delivery to Wayne Rooney, and a couple of passes to the Wonder Man were of the highest calibre. Perhaps only Claude Makelele in the British game finds a team-mate with such regularity.

Scholes is most at home, naturally, with the other two survivors of Ferguson's Boys of '94, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs. Twelve years on, these three remain a delight as United go about prising the Premiership title from Chelsea. Scholes can find Giggs and Neville without even looking up, it seems.

In his quiet fashion, Scholes remains grateful to Ferguson for giving him the chance, along with the Neville brothers, Giggs, David Beckham and Nicky Butt. "He was one of the first managers to give young players a real chance," said Scholes on the eve of Ferguson's big weekend. "And he is trying to do it again now.

"With him the players come first. He never slags anyone off publicly. If he has something to say he does it in the dressing room and it never leaves there." (Unless perhaps it is the story of Beckham and the Case of the Flying Boot).

"He sticks up for us to the hilt. It makes us feel wanted and that's important to us." Even the occasion when Scholes refused to play against Arsenal in the League Cup four years ago was tackled by his boss and forgotten. "If you apologise, go and see him and talk to him - there is always room to forgive," said Scholes.

There was nothing for Ferguson to forgive yesterday as Scholes showed his return from a long spell out with a serious eye problem is complete, to the utter benefit of the team. United were poorer in his absence, and a much better one for his restoration, Rooney prospering from the service in particular.

If Ferguson is delighted with his red-headed midfielder, Scholes himself is amazed at Ferguson's longevity and the fashion in which he copes with the constant pressure. "If you lose two or three games it's a crisis. But he is so used to it now that he doesn't let anything faze him."

Scholes feels there will never be another like Sir Alex. "You will never see anyone at a top club for so long again." Ferguson will certainly return that respect and affection. Scholes wears the number 18 and, at the age of 31, looks more the age on his shirt. The manager, and all at the club, wish they had another dozen years to come from the midfield genius.