From The Touchlines

FIRST BLOOD: Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney (second from right) is congratulated by his teammates after opening the scoring against Watford in the FA Cup semifinal at Villa Park. United won 4-1.

Manchester United are heading to the new Wembley stadium on May 19 after ruthlessly disposing off Watford 4-1 at Villa Park, thanks to goals by Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kieran Richardson.

Rooney was on the double, with Ronaldo converting his chance and substitute Richardson shrugging off a bad patch against Portsmouth to score against table proppers Watford.

Apart from the defence, United began with the strongest possible side, with Paul Scholes returning after being suspended for the tie against AS Roma. In the absence of Louis Saha, Alan Smith was placed upfront alongside Rooney in a 4-4-2 formation.

Patrice Evra, the scorer of the seventh goal in the 7-1 rout of Roma, featured at rightback with Gary Neville still out for at least another two weeks and John O’Shea out with injury.

With Adrian Boothroyd’s team almost certain to return to the Championship come season end, his men came out with all the desire needed to at least salvage a forgettable and almost predictable season.

But they were on the backfoot after only seven minutes when Rooney, upon receiving Michael Carrick’s pass, cut in behind the defence to score a brilliant goal beyond the reach of Watford No. 2 Richard Lee, who featured in the place of ineligible Ben Foster.

The first five minutes being relatively tenacious, the chance was the first real one from either side, and United looked like they were really going to give Watford the Roman experience.

Rooney nearly doubled his tally four minutes later, when he nearly latched onto a pass by Smith. But Lee was quick to save at his feet before he pulled the trigger.

That sparked Watford into action and their American defender Jay Demerit nearly caused a raucus in the United box when his telling header was just deflected out after 18 minutes.

United also went on the offensive, with Scholes and Giggs both being denied in the space of a minute.

But a subsequent healthy spell for Watford in the United half put the United backline and Dutch keeper Edwin van der Sar right on the edge, with the keeper just managing to keep the Watford offensive with a less than confident display after 25 minutes.

In the process, van der Sar was first kicked in the face by a Watford forward, and then a clash with his defender Wes Brown and another Watford man which left him with a bruised nose, most certainly broken.

But it was not as serious as the injury he suffered against Tottenham Hotspur in a Premiership match sometime back, as he carried on his duties in front of goal without worries.

Watford’s onslaught paid off a minute later, when Hameur Bouazza (below) neatly caught Tommy Smith’s cross and bicycle-kicked it into goal, that somehow came off the underside of the bar.

The party, however, was shortlived just two minutes later, when some neat passing resulted in Rooney collecting the ball down the right flank and placing a very deep cross which was poked into the net by Ronaldo, his 21st goal of the season and restoring United’s slender lead.

But Watford were determined not to sit back and get steamrolled, and were almost levelled when Gavin Mahon’s strike took a deflection on its way, surely, to goal.

But van der Sar, nervy at times, brilliantly parried the strike away to ensure United did not surrender their lead again.

Damien Francis had his chance as well, but he put his header wide after 35 minutes.

But for United, things were just about to get a bit sticky for them.

Five minutes from the break, Rio Ferdinand had to be taken off with a suspected groin problem, adding to the long list of injuries befalling the United defence.

Darren Fletcher came on in his place and filled in at rightback with Evra switching to his more natural position on the left and Gabriel Heinze dropping into central defence.

It was an entirely makeshift defence, but there was nothing makeshift of the United offence as the usual suspects threatened to kill off the tie with just a minute of the half to go.

Rooney nearly got his second of the encounter when he brought out a fine save from Lee, after some sleek passing on the right.

Fletcher nearly got a goal as well, when his header narrowly went wide right on 45 minutes.

Watford had been attacking the fragile United backline before the break, and it was business as usual for them after the restart, after Bouazza just missing the target with a nice half volley after 49 minutes.

Six minutes later, Bouazza was at it again as he forced van der Sar into a fine save.

On the other end, Scholes nearly latched onto Smith’s pass into the box.

Watford were proving themselves to be quite a nuisance to United with their attacking display and strong possession, but they found themselves two goals down just over 10 minutes later, no thanks to Rooney.

Smith’s pass from the right is, this time, put into the net from close range by the England forward to make it 3-1 for United.

Watford piled on the pressure on United after that, with van der Sar getting a real battering at the hands of the Watford offence, and nearly suffered injured ribs.

But four minutes later, United created another wonderful chance when Smith found himself in a good position to score.

Instead, he chose to pass the ball to Rooney in a crowded box, and the latter could only managed a tame shot that was easily saved by Lee.

Giggs had his shot on goal blocked five minutes later, with United really going all out to seal the tie.

Ronaldo was subsequently taken off and was replaced with Kieran Richardson, who was responsible for allowing Portsmouth to score against them in the last Premiership match.

Watford also made a substitution then by bringing on their talismanic striker Marlon King, who had been missing the entire season due to injury, to replace an ineffective Hungarian marksman Tamas Priskin.

But it was Sir Alex Ferguson’s tinkering that worked to perfection. 

Richardson put the ghost of Pompey’s past behind him when, after receiving Smith’s pass on the left, beat the offside trap to score from an angle and virtually seal United’s entry into the final.

THAT’S THE FOURTH: Manchester United’s Kieran Richardson (centre) leaps in delight after scoring United’s fourth goal in the 4-1 thrashing of Watford in the English FA Cup semifinal at Villa Park.

Norwegian striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was brought on to replace Giggs with seven minutes to go and with the tie almost certainly in the bag and with an eye on the next Premiership match at home to Sheffield United on Tuesday night.

Action was still packed at the tailend of the match with both sides crying foul over unawarded penalties – Heinze with a suspected handball on one end and Fletcher allegedly brought down by defender Clarke Carlisle.

But Howard Webb was not about to be generous.

Rooney, in search of his hat-trick, shot wide after 90 minutes, with his strike partner also having a go at the Watford goal.

But there were no more goals to speak off, only half-chances that could have gone either way. Rooney, Smith and Solskjaer were all guilty of not at least scoring one at the end of the match, but the United fans were already thinking about Wembley.

At the final whistle, the score stood at 4-1, with the performance just short of their fantastic rout over their Italian rivals over the week, but just as ruthless.

A shake of hands between Fergie and Boothroyd at the end of the fixture signalled two different things.

For Watford, their season is just as good as over. For United, the journey towards attaining the treble has just begun.