Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has lavished praise on Javier Hernandez for the performance put in during the recent pre-season friendly against a League of Ireland XI.

The Red Devils were comprehensive winners on the day, rattling in seven goals at the opening of the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

The 22-year-old came on as a second-half substitute for Wayne Rooney, and took less than two minutes to hit the back of the net.

The England international, however, appeared to have continued his World Cup form into the encounter, but the gaffer remains assured that his strike force will do the necessary damage when the time comes.

“Our goals were good, some of them very good,” said Ferguson, according to the Daily Mail.

“Hernandez’s goal was fantastic – no drawback at all.

“We’ve got good, young strikers in the club and they’re exciting me very much alongside the experience of Rooney, Owen and Berbatov.”

On the former Everton hitman’s performance, he added: “Rooney has only been training for six days, along with Owen and Park (Ji Sung), and they’re definitely not ready for real games so 45 minutes was fine for them.

“I’ll have to play them against Chelsea on Sunday [in the Community Shield] because that will help to bring them on.”

Meanwhile, the Scot has an injury worry to deal with as midfielder Michael Carrick limped away from the action after being on the pitch for a half hour.

“The only injury we’ve got is Michael Carrick, who has an ankle problem which will put him out of Sunday’s game,” he said.

In the meantime, Mike Phelan, the assistant manager of the Red Devils, has alleviated concerns with regard to the injury sustained by the ex-West Ham United man.

“We don’t think it’s anything serious,” he told MUTV.

“We’ll have another look at it in the morning, but as a precaution if you get something like that then you have to come away early, and we’ll have a look at it tomorrow.”