Hat-trick hitman Van Persie sorry for penalty miss and thanks Scholes for narrow win.

Robin Van Persie ended up apologising despite scoring a hat-trick in just his third game for Manchester United.

The £24million striker earned three points with his 100th goal in the Premier League to put a smile on the face of Sir Alex Ferguson, managing his 1,000th league match.

But Van Persie was left embarrassed by a 68th-minute penalty miss with his side trailing 2-1.

I’m to blame. I don’t know what went wrong. Something went wrong, big time, and I’ll have to work on it.

‘I was a bit down and afterwards we were a bit lucky to equalise and then with the dramatic third.’

When quizzed about whether Van Persie had dug his team out of a hole, Ferguson said: ‘Absolutely. I thought we were more or less in control during the first half but it needed Van Persie to score a fantastic equaliser.

‘After Southampton scored, I thought we were well out of it until Paul Scholes came on. His vision and consistency of passing gave us control again. Of course it was a matter of scoring the goals and Robin has come up with two very important ones.

‘He has four now in two starts and he’ll get better.’

Van Persie also made reference to Scholes’s influence after the  37-year-old midfielder (below) was brought on just after the hour.

‘I have to say “Thank you” to Paul Scholes,’ he said. ‘When he came on, everything was ticking. Every single pass he hit was the right one.

‘He hit a couple of unbelievable 30-40 yard passes. With him, you are always on your toes because anything can happen. He was my man of the match.’ Southampton manager Nigel Adkins, still without a point this season, said: ‘For a newly promoted club we have scored two goals in open play against a Manchester United side full of experience.

‘We knew the first four games would be challenging but we have demonstrated we can compete.

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/