Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney scored a hat-trick as he helped his side earn a hard-fought win over Portsmouth.

Rooney put the visitors ahead from the spot after he was brought down by Michael Brown only for Kevin-Prince Boateng’s penalty to haul Pompey level.

Ryan Giggs crossed for Rooney to slot in and the winger was then fouled to allow Rooney to grab his third with another assured penalty.

Giggs scored a late free-kick to put the gloss on United’s victory.

It was Giggs’ 100th Premier League goal and, he may be turning 36 on 29 November, 2009, but he put in a performance of vision and verve which has been the trademark of his illustrious career.

Portsmouth:
Younes Kaboul, Jamie O’Hara, Hermann Hreidarsson, Frédéric Piquionne (Kanu), Michael Brown, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Aruna Dindane (Smith), Tal Ben-Haim, Asmir Begovic, Hassan Yebda (Utaka), Marc Wilson

Subs:
John Utaka, Anthony Vanden Borre, Tommy Smith, Jamie Ashdown, Richard Hughes, Nwankwo Kanu, , Nadir Belhadj

Manchester United:
Gary Neville, Patrice Evra, Wes Brown, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick (Anderson), Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher, Antonio Valencia, Tomasz Kuszczak

Subs:
Michael Owen, Anderson, Dimitar Berbatov, Ben Foster, Ji Sung Park, Nani, Ritchie De Laet

Goals:
Wayne Rooney ‘25 (p)
Kevin-Prince Boateng ‘32 (p)
Wayne Rooney ‘48
Wayne Rooney ‘54 (p)
Ryan Giggs ‘87