Manchester United 2-3 Blackburn Rovers

By Pascal Lemesre, Football League Editor | 31 December 2011

A brace from Yakubu and a late Grant Hanley header see Blackburn Rovers end 2011 with a pleasing victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Blackburn Rovers shocked Manchester United this afternoon by picking up their first away win of the season at Old Trafford.

Grant Hanley pounced on a David de Gea error late on to snatch all three points for Steve Kean and give Rovers' fans all the more reason to celebrate on New Year's Eve.

The game began steadily with United controlling most of the ball before the visitors surprisingly opened the scoring from the spot after a quarter of an hour.

Dimitar Berbatov wrestled with Christopher Samba and hauled the defender down, leaving referee Mike Dean no choice but to point for a penalty. Yakubu stepped and coolly sent De Gea the wrong way to put the visitors one up.

Phil Jones almost scored against his former club to level the scores but saw his shot well blocked by Hanley while Javier Hernandez continued to threaten as Rovers held out to half time.

Amazingly Kean's men went two up when Yakubu brushed off Michael Carrick before going past Phil Jones with ease and firing home.

United responded 21 seconds later through Dimitar Berbatov, who headed in after Rafael scuffed his shot. The Bulgarian scored his and the home side's second ten minutes later to level the scores by side-footing home from Antonio Valencia's cross.

Sir Alex Ferguson's men then laid siege to Mark Bunn's goal but it was Blackburn who again took the lead nine minutes from time when defender Hanley beat David de Gea to Morten Gamst Pedersen's corner.

Blackburn held on to record a memorable win which sees them move off the bottom of the Premier League and go ahead of Bolton and Wigan.

United remain level with neighbours Manchester City but Roberto Mancini's men will look to reclaim outright first place when they travel to Sunderland tomorrow.