Owen savours cup start

Michael Owen conceded that Wednesday's Carling Cup win over Scunthorpe was a vital outing for several squad members who have found themselves consigned to the first team periphery this term.

The 30-year-old bagged a brace in United's 5-2 victory at Glanford Park, as he made his first start since August's Community Shield. United's starting line-up contained eight players who had made one or less starts so far this term, and a pepped-up Scunthorpe side provided a valuable test of their fitness and sharpness.

"There are a few of us who haven't been playing a lot this season and needed the game, and Scunthorpe made a real game of it," Owen told MUTV. "They're obviously very fit and they never stopped going forward.

"We scored five goals but they could have scored a few as well. It was a good game. There were a lot of players there tonight that needed that first game; be it players coming back from injury or players who just haven't played, so that was beneficial to us.

"All in all it was a good workout and we're pleased to get through to the next round - especially seeing the other results!"

Owen feels he and a number of other action-starved players have fallen foul of the early-season schedule, but the striker predicts that the onset of cup duties, allied to the bread and butter of the Premier League, will ensure plenty of squad rotation from Sir Alex Ferguson.

"It's been a strange start to the season," said Owen. "We played weekend-weekend-weekend, and then it was international games for two weeks so the manager didn't need to rotate so much. Subsequently, five weeks into the season the manager had kept a similar team.

"We're coming into a period now where the Champions League has started, the League Cup has started and there are Premier League games, so I'm sure there will be a lot more games coming thick and fast now."