Scholes still hungry

No dramas. No wasted energy. No distractions. That's just what you want at the business end of a title race – and just what Paul Scholes is all about. As the pass master supreme bids for his 10th league championship, he tells uswhat it's going to take for the Reds to bring home the bacon. Again…

Aside from points on the board, what else is there in the United locker that gives us an advantage over our title rivals?
Probably that will to win when we're down, like we were at West Ham (in early April). We always believe that whatever position we're in, we can turn it around. We'd rather be 2-0 up than 2-0 down at half-time, of course, but sometimes that happens and you just have to fight back. We're a team that never stops. The Bolton game (March) was another example. We were down to 10 men with 15 minutes to go, with the score at 0-0. It was a very difficult game but we managed to squeeze a win out of it.

Does the experience in the squad help you not to panic? 
You still have your worrying moments, because it's a championship run-in and the stakes are high. But most of the players here have won the title in the past and we hope that will stand us in good stead. You never know for certain what's going to happen. You just hope that you manage to get the right results and that that's enough.

What do you recall of your first league title, back in the 1995/96, when you were a young lad in the team?
We knew it was massive. But if you were offered that situation – needing to win the last game to win the league – at the start of any season, you'd take it every time. Not much sticks in my mind but I remember Middlesbrough were a decent team and the Riverside was a difficult place to go. Happily, we managed to get the right result (United won 3-0).

Does losing so narrowly to Chelsea last season make you hungry to finish the job this year?
Yes it does. We were just as hungry last year and lost it by a point. It's not nice when you see others teams celebrating. We want to make sure it's us this year.

Do Ryan Giggs, Edwin van der Sar and yourself have to lead by example for the younger members of the squad who may not have experienced a run-in before?
It's not just us three – there's Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, John O'Shea, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick. We can all carry the responsibility because we've been here quite some time and we should know by now what it's all about coming into the run-in. We need to stay calm, relaxed and play as if it's just another game. But I'm sure the young lads in our squad are so confident in their own ability they won't have a problem.

How are this season's new players coping with their first run-in with United?
There have been no signs of any nervousness and they've all come in and worked very hard whenever they've been needed. Chris Smalling has been great for his first season, absolutely brilliant. And Javier Hernandez just looks like a top-class goalscorer. He's adjusted more quickly than any foreign player I've ever seen.

Do the manager's famed psychology skills make a difference at this time of the year?
Probably, yes. He's had some famous run-ins with other managers down the years. Whether there's anybody to do that with this year, I'm not too sure. But he's great as a calming influence on us. Coming towards the end of the season, there's no better manager to have. He's been through this, competing for the title, for nearly 20 years now, so he knows what he wants to do and he'll get that across to us.