Ferguson ready for United, Manchester City title slog

MANCHESTER - Alex Ferguson predicts a long, hard Premier League title race with champions Manchester City after his Manchester United team opened up a seven-point gap over rivals Chelsea.

Table-toppers United ground out a 1-0 victory over West Ham at Old Trafford thanks to Robin van Persie scoring the fastest goal of the Premier League season to date, after only 33 seconds. It was only the third clean sheet United have kept in domestic football this season and ended a worrying trend of the team having conceded first in nine of their opening 13 league games.

And while it was a far from vintage performance, it was a vital one given that City's victory at Wigan kept the defending champions just one point behind.

"The three points means we're still ahead in the league and, with Chelsea drawing, it draws us away from them a little bit further," said veteran United manager Ferguson. "But City are on our tails. It's going to be a long season. "The importance of winning 1-0 in certain games is your opponents know the resilience is there.

"If you look at some of the really important one-nil we've had, go back to beating Newcastle when they were nine points clear of us (in 1996).  "Our 1-0 that night won us the league. There are important 1-0 victories. We've had many of them."

Given the scarcity of clean sheets for United this term, the fact his side were able to keep West Ham at bay for such a long period gave Ferguson as much pleasure as the large points cushion he enjoys over European champions Chelsea and their new manager Rafael Benitez. "It is particularly hard, when you take the lead after one minute, to keep a clean sheet over the remaining 90-plus minutes, with time added on," said Ferguson. "But in the main I thought we defended very well."

Ferguson paid particular tribute to young Brazilian full-back Rafael and fit-again central defender Chris Smalling, who was starting a game for just the third time this season.

"Chris came into the team and did very well after a few weeks out and Jonny Evans was magnificent," he said. "There were a lot of plus points tonight, particularly with the defending because you have to against West Ham because they are such a handful. We had to be at our best for the whole 90 minutes. "Rafael is maturing; he's 22 years of age now. He came here as a young boy, he was in the first team at 17-18, and made a lot of rash mistakes because he was such an enthusiastic boy. He is maturing and learning now."

Van Persie now has nine goals in just 12 league starts this term and Alan Shearer and Cristiano Ronaldo's joint record for a 38-match Premier League season -- 31 goals -- will be under threat if he maintains this form.

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce certainly believes that, whether van Persie sets records or not, his goals could see United to the title.

"He's going to score 20-odd, maybe 30 goals," he said. "In the end, that's normally the difference, if you sort your defensive side out.

"It's not so long ago, a couple of seasons that Man United went 14 games without conceding a goal and that won them the league.

"Van Persie is a quality player, no doubt about that, though we kept him quiet tonight.

"United have got lots of players who will have good spells, lot of players who will come up trumps, and that's what makes them so good."

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Manchester United Methodist Church to celebrate 170th anniversary

Eleven people gathered in a Manchester home in 1839 to start one of the fledgling community's first churches. That event — the founding of the Manchester United Methodist Church — will be celebrated Sunday by its current 154 members and the public during a special 170th anniversary service, festival and pig roast. All events are at the church, 501 Ann Arbor Road.

Activities begin with 9 a.m. Sunday School classes, followed by a 10:30 a.m. worship service featuring music from the "Manchester Brass Band." The Rev. Larry Wik, the church's pastor for the past four years, will arrive from the parsonage in a horse-drawn carriage, much like the original pastor, George Bradley, might have arrived at that first meeting.

Festivities, including a petting zoo, old-fashioned children's games, pony rides and face painting, will begin after the services. The pig roast and pot-luck meal will start at 1 p.m. All events are free, but goodwill donations are welcome, Wik said.

"We want to celebrate each other, our community and the gifts and blessings we've received from the church members who've gone before us," Wik said.

Tours of the former church building at the corner of Main and Washington streets in downtown Manchester also will be conducted. The building, vacated by the church when it moved to its current building in 1971, now houses a doctor's office.

"We're all really excited about this event," said Sandy Smith, a 30-year parishioner. "Some of our former pastors are coming back, and we're putting together lots of pictures. It's going to be really fun."

The event also will give people a glimpse into the future of the church, including a $400,000 building project slated to begin next spring that will increase space and make the church more accessible to elderly and physically challenged members and visitors, Wik said.

The project will add space to the front of the church and accommodate room for a lounge, more classrooms, restroom improvements and an elevator. Approximately $12,000 needs to be raised by the end of the year to allow construction to begin, Wik said.

"We're going to get a lot out of this small project," he said. "It will make our church much more accessible to everyone. We will have plans available and things marked off somehow so people can visualize what it will be like."

The Manchester United Methodist Church is a vibrant congregation of people of all ages, Wik said. Members do caroling at Christmas, conduct bottle drives for Manchester Family Services, donate to the Community Resource Center food pantry and make cookies and shawls for senior citizens and others.

"I like the closeness of the church," said Sandy King, church secretary. "We are a family. People are warm and caring, and they care about each other."

Sunday's celebration will be a primer for the church's 175th anniversary in five years, Wik said. Members are working on gathering as much history as they can to present then and hope to hear and learn from people at Sunday's festivities, he said.