Manchester United 4 Charlton 0

ALAN CURBISHLEY waved goodbye to the Premiership on Sunday but his team failed to deliver for him as they succumbed to a rampant Manchester United.

The home side ripped the visitors apart from start to finish as Curbishley’s 15-year reign as Charlton chief ended in a battering at Old Trafford.

A standing ovation from the sell-out 73,006 crowd greeted Curbishley at the start of the game, as he marked the end of his time with the Addicks, which began back in 1991.

He was looking to register his first win over Manchester United in top-flight football but came nowhere near thanks to a lacklustre Charlton performance and a glowing United one.

The home side dominated from start to finish to ruin Curbishley’s swan song with goals from Louis Saha, Cristiano Ronaldo, an own goal from Jason Euell and an effort from Keiran Richardson.

Richardson came close for United in the sixth minute as he curled an effort round a packed penalty area, with the ball creeping just outside Stephan Andersen’s post.

Both sides were spreading the ball around well in the opening stages but it was United that looked most likely to make a break as Charlton came up against a solid home defence.

With Wayne Rooney injured and Ruud van Nistelrooy leaving the ground before the game, United took a chance on young striker Giuseppe Rossi. It was he who had the first shot on target, which was well saved by Andersen, who was called on again seconds later to keep out a Ronaldo free-kick.

The shots were flying in by now, with Richardson unleashing a powerful effort which struck the bar and bounced on the line, before Rossi’s follow-up went inches wide.

Finally the goal that United threatened came on 19 minutes when Saha nodded Ryan Giggs’ corner downwards into the far corner of the net.

Just four minutes later and it was 2-0 as Giggs’ low cross was met by Ronaldo, the Portuguese midfielder composing himself and striking low to double United’s lead.

Saha came close twice, once with a shot just wide and seconds later a volleyed attempt that Andersen had to parry to safety.

It was Saha that created the third – his cross was dummied by Rossi and the unfortunate Euell slid in to put the ball past his own keeper in the 34th minute.

United were rampant and Rossi came close to adding a fourth with a diving header that Andersen did well to tip over the bar.

Charlton’s first-half efforts were limited, Radostin Kishishev’s long-range effort failed to trouble Edwin van der Sar and Darren Bent fired wide after Mikael Silvestre mis-judged a back pass.

Curbishley would have to pull out the biggest trick of his 729-game reign as Charlton boss to rescue anything from the match as the side left for the interval.

Whatever was said became irrelevant on 58 minutes as Richardson stormed towards goal and smashed in United’s fourth.

Bryan Hughes’ wayward shot and Darren Ambrose’s long-range effort were as close to scoring as Charlton came in the second half as United strolled to the finish.

Charlton may never be able to compete with the likes of United, but the several hundred Addicks followers were just thankful to Curbishley for taking them this far and they sang the man’s name throughout, showing their gratitude to the departing manager.