Rooney breathes life into United
The Reading striker might not “care less” about the famous old silver pot, which is starting to lose some of its lustre, but the England international wants to see it glistening in the Old Trafford trophy cabinet in May.
Rooney might have far grander aspirations this season, in terms of the Champions League and the Premier League, but that was not entirely evident from his cameo performance at Villa Park, which helped extend Alex Ferguson’s incredible run of third round successes to 22 and brought a glint to the eye of Fabio Capello.
The England manager will start work today at Soho Square with the confirmation that Rooney is a born winner and whether it is a game of tiddlywinks, or a World Cup final, the United striker has no thoughts of finishing second.
That was the preserve of Martin O’Neill’s side, once Rooney had collected his 11th goal of the season to confirm success, after Cristiano Ronaldo had broken the tedium.
The impatient Rooney was made to wait 70 minutes before his audition, because of the virus that had kept him out of the previous two games, but now he wants to end his wait for a winner’s medal in the competition that has captivated him since he went to watch Everton as a kid back in 1995.
“I have very high feelings about the FA Cup. I love the competition and I am desperate to win it. I have been to a final two times and lost and hopefully we can get there again this season and win it,’’ said Rooney.
His crisp volley defeated Scott Carson for the second time in the final 10 minutes, after Ronaldo punished Wilfred Bouma for his hesitancy with a opportunist finish to deny Villa a replay. “Neither side really deserved to win and we were looking at a replay,” said O’Neill, but that would have only been prolonging the inevitable.
The Ulsterman has made great strides at Villa Park over the last 12 months and his side can be considered genuine UEFA Cup contenders, but at no stage did they have the necessary conviction to de-throne last season’s beaten finalists.
Weighed down by the historical statistics of losing nine of their previous 11 cup meetings with United, they failed to force Edwin Van Der Sar into a single meaningful save and that will be the greatest disappointment to O’Neill.
Carson 5, Mellberg 6, Laursen 7, Davies 7, Bouma 5 (Gardner 83), Petrov 6 (Maloney 75,5), Reo-Coker 6, Barry 7, Young 6, Carew 6 (Moore 64,5), Agbonlahor 7.
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Knight.
Van der Sar 6; Brown 6, Ferdinand 8, Vidic 7, Evra 6, Park 6 (Rooney 70, 7), Anderson 7, Carrick 6, Giggs 6 (O’Shea 90, 5), Ronaldo 9, Saha 5 (Hargreaves 79, 6).
Subs Not Used: Heaton, Nani.
Martin Atkinson (West Yorkshire) 7: Would have been expecting a full-tilt cup-tie, but like everyone else, was hardly challenged by a mundane affair, which always had an air of inevitability about it.
** Villa, despite their strides under Martin O’Neill this season, lacked the conviction required to defeat United and it showed. Capello must be wondering why we make so much noise about the best cup competition in the world.
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