On 1 February 2006, Blackburn winger David Bentley scored the first Premier League hat-trick against Manchester United as Rovers won 4-3.

The match was Bentley’s first as an official Blackburn player–he signed with them the day before after spending the first half of the season with them on loan from Arsenal. Playing at home before a crowd of 25,484, he celebrated the move by putting Rovers ahead in the 35th minute, finishing off a free kick that United keeper Edwin van der Sar tipped onto the bar.

United striker Louis Saha returned the favor in the 37th minute, but a poor clearance from Rio Ferdinand allowed Bentley to double his tally four minutes later. Rovers extended the lead to 3-1 before the break when Lucas Neill converted a 45th-minute penalty kick. Then, in the 56th minute, Robbie Savage found Bentley unmarked in the United box; the winger took the chance, claiming the first hat-trick against United since QPR’s David Bailey did it in January 1992 when the top flight was still called Division One.

United’s Ruud van Nistelrooy, who had come on as a second-half substitute, scored a brace of his own in the 63rd and 68th minutes, but the rally ended when referee Phil Dowd sent Ferdinand off in the 88th minute–Ferdinand’s first career red card, earned by having drawn a second yellow card for a challenge on Savage that left the Welshman with a gash on his shin.

The win completed a Blackburn double over United that season, which ended with Rovers in sixth place and United in second. Bentley left Blackburn for Tottenham in 2008 and is currently on loan with Birmingham.

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