From correspondents in London, England, 04:03 PM IST

They said he couldn't shoot - some said he couldn't play - but in the past week, Darron Gibson has scored three goals to emerge as the pick of Manchester United's present crop of bright young players.

The Irish midfielder scored two in the Carling Cup quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspur last week - a low drive from the edge of the box, and then a delightful curler after a neat interchange with Danny Wellbeck - and added another with the outside of his right foot in the 4-0 win over West Ham United Saturday.

From any player, they would have been three remarkable goals, but particularly so from a man who was singled out amid general criticism of United's young players after United's Champions League defeat to Besiktas a fortnight ago.

That result leaves United still needing a point away to Wolfsburg Tuesday to top their group, and Gibson looks like being give another chance to shine with Darren Fletcher possibly covering in the back four as United deal with a welter of injuries.

'Darron Gibson has that ability and power to score from outside the box,' said the United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

'That gives us an extra dimension to our game, we don't normally have midfield players who can do that.'

Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, Gibson joined United as a 16-year-old in 2004, after attending trials that led to him being dropped from the Northern Ireland Under-16 squad.

He subsequently switched allegiances to the Republic of Ireland - taking advantage of an obscure rule that grants citizenship of the Republic to anybody born on the island of Ireland - and by the end of the World Cup qualifying campaign had become a regular in Giovanni Trapattoni's midfield.

There he impressed with his work-rate and distribution, but drew criticism for his apparent inability to shoot; in the past week, that question mark could not have been more emphatically erased.

His performances since the Besiktas game suggest a man who delights in proving people wrong, but Gibson remains admirably modest.

'You have bad days and you have good days,' he said.

In the past two weeks he has been having far more good ones than bad ones.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)