Wednesday were simply awful as United scored at will and if Alex Ferguson's side had really tried they might have repeated last season's 6-1 romp. The victory extends United's lead at the top of the Premiership to four points, but perhaps more importantly it gave the treble-chasers the chance to switch back to cruise control after three games against Arsenal and Juventus played at full throttle.

Ryan Giggs, Peter Schmeichel, Ronny Johnsen and Andy Cole were given the afternoon off, while David Beckham and Dwight Yorke put their feet up on the bench. They will have appreciated this breather ahead of the midweek titanic match in Turin against Juventus.

But then the United stars who did play against the Owls hardly had to exert themselves. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Teddy Sheringham scored before the interval to reduce the game to a virtual practice match for the Reds.

What little excitement there was came in the first half when, following a minute's silence to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, which was impeccably observed, Ferguson took the microphone and appealed to the United fans to get behind their team. Ferguson has been alarmed by the lack of atmosphere at Old Trafford in recent games and he implored them to make some noise.

The supporters answered his rallying call and for the first 30 minutes or so they had a contest to watch.

Roy Keane tested Pavel Srnicek from 30 yards out before the lively Benito Carbone forced a great save from Raimond van der Gouw when the Dutchman tipped his curling effort away for a corner. Two minutes later Carbone let rip with a dipping shot from outside the area, which dropped behind the United goal.

Sheringham then forced a decent save from Srnicek from a free-kick 20 yards out before he went close again with a header.

Paul Scholes, operating on the right in the absence of Beckham, was looking threatening and he sent in a decent header, which was turned away by Srnicek for a corner. United patiently kept probing at the Owls defence and on 34 minutes they made the breakthrough. Keane knocked Jesper Blomqvist's cross back for Sheringham to find Solskjaer with an overhead kick and the Norwegian made no mistake from eight yards out to score goal number 17 for the season.

Incredibly, that killed the game as a contest and Solskjaer nearly had a second two minutes later only for Srnicek to save his shot on the greasy surface. Just before half-time United sealed victory when Solskjaer crossed for Sheringham to head home his third goal of the season and his first in the League since the opening day of the campaign.

Solskjaer and Sheringham's goals also justified Ferguson's decision to stick with the pair because he claimed in his programme notes that Yorke and Cole were experiencing a "flattening out period".

In the second half both sides went through the motions, although Wednesday struggled to do even that. They could barely move the ball out of their own half let alone mount a serious attack. Such was United's control that Phil Neville even got in on the fun from left back and he screwed a shot across the Owls goal.

Then just as many fans were nodding off, Sheringham set up Scholes to fire home the third from just inside the area in the 62nd minute. That was the signal for Ferguson to bring off Jaap Stam and Keane for a well-earned rest and on came Jonathan Greening and David May, who was making his first League appearance of the season.

With 15 minutes left, the industrious Blomqvist was also brought off to let Denis Irwin stretch his legs. That was more or less it and the remainder of the game was just as humiliating for Wednesday as the first part.

Manchester United: Van Der Gouw, G Neville, P Neville, Stam, Brown, Keane, Butt, Scholes, Blomqvist, Solskjaer, Sheringham. Subs: May for Stam, Irwin for Blomqvist, Greening for Keane Scorers: Solskjaer (35), Sheringham (44), Scholes (62)

Sheffield Wednesday: Srnicek, Atherton, Jonk, Walker, Hinchcliffe, Thome, Rudi, Carbone, Alexandersson, Sonner Subs: Cresswell for Booth, Scott for Alexandersson

Referee: N Barry

Attendance: 55,270