BY Ian Hawkey ( The Times )

ALL QUIET on all three fronts for Manchester United. Conserving their energies ahead of their date with Juventus in Turin, and catching their breath after the stirring FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal, United made clean, calculated work of Sheffield Wednesday, extending their lead in the Premiership to four points. If it were all as easy as yesterday, the treble would be a doddle.

There were goals for each of the understudy front men, and a part in all of them for Teddy Sheringham, who may not be too bold in thinking he has a role to play in the second leg of the European Cup semi-final on Wednesday. Sheringham's awareness gave a United team without most of their regulars a fulcrum and a balance, albeit against opponents bereft of ambition. Sheffield Wednesday's heads had dropped long before Paul Scholes struck United's third goal just after the hour, and their form of late makes their concern about the drop a genuine one.

Alex Ferguson, United's manager, knew the third goal had done the job, withdrawing Roy Keane and Jaap Stam immediately, so that they could begin their preparations for the formidable task in Italy. Ferguson's juggling of his squad members does not always work so smoothly, but when he can both rest his superstars and take heart from the form of his substitutes, such as Sheringham and Scholes, it is reassuring in otherwise testing times. Martin Edwards, the United chairman, chose yesterday to make known the boundaries of his budget now that the club are not to be taken over by BSkyB. The transfer kitty was not "a bottomless pit", he said, and the big-money additions to the squad this summer may be limited simply to replacing the departing Peter Schmeichel.

Ferguson would like to add one or two more. "With the restructured Champions League next year, you are going to need a lot of players," he said. "The demands will be enormous." He had not yet discussed Edwards's concerns with the chairman.

Besides, this performance encouraged Ferguson's belief in the depth and spread of the present United. Their win here was completed with an XI eight short of the established, full-strength line-up, and they are unbeaten in 24 matches.

Schmeichel and Ryan Giggs were out because of injuries collected in the stirring FA Cup replay three days before; the rest of the selection had a radical look. Neither Andy Cole, who expects to recover from his ankle injury by Wednesday, nor Dwight Yorke made the starting XI: 47 goals between them in the first seven months of the season, but none in the past five weeks. Assuming they pair up again against Juventus - 11 of their goals have come in the Champions League - Cole will have had 10 days of rest and recuperation. Yorke began on the bench, alongside David Beckham and Denis Irwin.

"Yorke and Cole have been fantastic, but there can come a flattening-out period," Ferguson explained, "and with players like Solskjaer and Sheringham waiting in the wings, it would be foolish not to use them. It was very difficult to leave Sheringham out of the team for the first tie against Arsenal after doing so well against Juventus. I appreciated what he did that night and was able to indicate my appreciation for the Arsenal replay." The mutual appreciation extended here.

Ferguson, indeed, was in an appreciative mood all round and took the unusual step of addressing the crowd before the kick-off to thank them for their support at Villa Park. "I felt some supporters would have come here to admire what we had done the other day," Ferguson said.

The admiration yesterday was of a different sort. So short of suspense or bite was most of this match that Neale Barry, the referee, had as little to do as United's goalkeeper, Raimond van der Gouw. United might as well have begun on auto-pilot, except that where Keane's measured passes to his right would normally pick out Beckham, here they sought fruition from the industrious Gary Neville. And where Beckham would usually volunteer for a free kick such as the one Scholes earned just outside the penalty area, Sheringham sized up the chance well enough to send Pavel Srnicek scrambling to his left to paw the effort clear.

It was one of three good saves made by the Wednesday goalkeeper within the opening half-hour. "Srnicek kept the score down," said Danny Wilson, the Wednesday manager. "We didn't force the issue."

Certainly, United's wannabes would have been happy with the manner of their opener, Scholes, Blomqvist, Sheringham and Solskjaer combining to give the Norwegian the sort of chance he seldom sniffs at. Scholes fed the ball right to left, Blomqvist switched it back to Keane and Sheringham, with his back to his partner, resourcefully hooked it on to Solskjaer, who finished from eight yards out.

A minute later, Solskjaer might have repeated the trick, Srnicek saving a low snap shot. By half-time, the two strikers had established a fluent understanding, United breaking through Sheringham, and Solskjaer crossing for the England man to glance number two expertly into the far corner.

Two-nil at the interval, then, and one-way traffic. Wednesday, at full-strength but now defeated in five of their past six matches, lived on scraps of possession, threatening only through Benito Carbone's curling, dipping drive after 15 minutes. Van der Gouw, deputising for Schmeichel, responded well to tip it over.

United could quicken, or kill, the tempo much as they pleased once Sheringham created number three, feeding Scholes, who efficiently beat the advancing goalkeeper. Scholes, too, had a good afternoon and could afford to start thinking of Turin long before the final whistle blew. His manager had already made enquiries to discover that Juventus won 3-1 at Lazio, his only bad news of the day. "We'll have to heighten our game on Wednesday," Ferguson said.

Substitutes: Manchester United: Stam (May 63min), Keane (Greening 63min), Blomqvist (Irwin 75min)

Sheffield Wednesday: Alexandersson (Scott 55min), Booth (Cresswell 71min)

Referee: N Barry (Scunthorpe)

Attendance: 55,270