Carrick on red alert for derby

DERBY HOPE ... midfielder Michael Carrick

MICHAEL CARRICK admits table-topping Manchester United need to pull their finger out ahead of next week’s derby.

Alex Ferguson’s side hold a one-point lead over second-placed Manchester City, despite three league defeats already this season.

And United have been far from convincing as they laboured to back-to-back home wins over
QPR and West Ham in their last two games.

Tomorrow’s trip to Reading is the last league match before the Manc showdown at the Etihad on Sunday week.

At least United put a stop to this season’s habit of conceding first in Wednesday’s 1-0 win over
West Ham — even if there were few other positives.

Midfielder Carrick, 31, said: “We got the clean sheet and it is something to build on because the performance needs to be better.

“It was far from a classic. We were not at our best and the free-flowing football we want to play
didn’t quite happen.

“We had a spell, about a year or two ago, when we were start- ing games really well and killing teams off really early. We want to get back to that because Old Trafford is a difficult place to play when you go a goal down.

“We want to make it that way because going a goal down has made things a lot harder for us than they should have been.

“Keeping a clean sheet gives us something to build on in the future, that’s the biggest positive we can take.”

Defender Jonny Evans agrees United are a long way from their best.

But the Irish centre-back insists there is not a lot wrong with them going into what will be a
hectic few weeks on the domestic front.

Evans, 24, said: “We didn’t play well. I think we all know we didn’t play to our usual standards.
We’d had a tough game at the weekend, or at least we made it tough for ourselves “The clean sheet is good for the confidence, even if we didn’t play in the normal United way.

“We probably were a bit more cautious going forward and holding our positions a bit more. It’s up to us to find the right balance and decide when it’s the right time to go forward and the right time to hold your position and defend.

“Once we get that sorted, I think we’ll be OK.”

United hoped to boost their goal tally when Robin van Persie gave them the lead after just 33 seconds against the Hammers.

Fergie’s men missed out on their 20th league title on goal difference. And everyone at Old
Trafford is determined not to let that happen again.

But the rout failed to materialise and Evans said: “I was thinking at the time ‘This is great, we’ve got a goal early doors and we can score a lot here’.

“Everybody is looking at the goal difference, especially after what happened last season.”

Meanwhile, Evans could find skipper Nemanja Vidic is back and after his place sooner than expected.

The Serb centre-back was ruled out until Christmas by Ferguson after undergoing more knee surgery in September.

But Vidic is ready to resume full training again and hopes to return to the first team in the next couple of weeks.