Fergie warning: keep up momentum

Sir Alex Ferguson says Manchester United must maintain their winning focus after last night's victory over Sparta Prague in Sunday's derby with Manchester City.

United, who are second in Group D behind Lyon after beating Sparta 4-1, have scored only 11 goals in 11 Premiership games and trail leaders Arsenal by nine points.

Ruud van Nistelrooy scored all four goals against the Czechs to take his European tally to an incredible 35 goals in 36 games since his £ 18.5million move from PSV Eindhoven three years ago, but he is suspended for the match at Manchester City.

Ferguson is still upset at seeing the momentum built up by victory over Arsenal 11 days ago so badly derailed in the 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth last weekend. He said: "All last night has done is confirm the abilities of the team. We keep saying we have to maintain the momentum but no matter which team I pick this weekend, we all deserve better than we saw on Saturday. We have to move on because every game is so important to us."

United had a two-goal cushion at the interval as Van Nistelrooy capitalised on a woeful mistake from Jiri Homola, who picked out the Dutchman with an inexplicable back-pass, and a foul on Paul Scholes that led to a penalty.

Lukas Zelenka had halved the deficit with the best goal of the night before the prolific United forward completed his sixth hat-trick for the club, neatly lobbing home Gabriel Heinze's long ball. And then, in injury time, from an offside position, the 28-year-old completed his own personal demolition job by tapping home Roy Keane's low cross from close range.

Ferguson said: "Ruud's record is unbelievable. He is definitely the most clinical finisher I have had at Manchester United.

"He is so quick with his feet and so cool with his finishing.

"If you go back to all the great strikers, the likes of Johan Cruyff, Alfredo di Stefano and Gerd Muller, the platform where they really excelled was in Europe and I think Ruud wants that stage as well.