Proud Rooney on a mission

A place among the Everton supporters as his boyhood team beat United 1-0 at Wembley in 1995 must seem like a lifetime ago for a player now accustomed to centre stage.

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But defeat by Arsenal while wearing United red two years ago stands out as the worst day of his career.

Both will form part of a Rooney scrapbook in years to come, but now the 21-year-old is ready to tell another story.

The one that involves a winning goal when football's most famous competition returns to its natural home next month.

"The defeat two years ago was very disappointing and very hard to take," said Rooney after his starring role in Saturday's defeat of Watford at Villa Park.

"It was a very low day for me. But now we have the chance to make up for it and that was all that I wanted. We really want to put that right in May.

"As a young boy I used to watch the FA Cup Final on TV. Then I went there in 1995 to watch Everton play. They beat United that day so I hope it doesn't turn out that way this time. We need to win it again.

"The Cup Final will be historic. It's always nice to make history and this is the first final back at Wembley. That's exciting.

"It would be great to score the winner but at the moment Striker is desperate for a slice of history I'd take anybody scoring as long as he plays for United."

Hearing Rooney speak on Saturday evening served as a reminder of what this competition means.

Despite the FA's continuing attempts to ruin their own show with stupid kick-off times and ill-judged ticket policies, it has retained its pull for those who grew up in an age when football was played on Saturday at 3pm.

This was not a classic semifinal and that was nobody's fault. Such is United's momentum at the moment, there are few teams in Europe who would present them with stiff opposition.

It was, however, absorbing enough to hold the attention and Rooney was its stand-out performer.

On the day when the back pages were occupied with Cristiano Ronaldo's new contract, this was the time for Rooney to remind everybody that United have more than one world-class performer.

Facing a Watford team who did not deserve to lose by this margin, Rooney provided the game with its two defining moments.

His rasping opening goal in the seventh minute ensured that Watford spent the first part of the game on the back foot, and he came again to put his opponents back in their place once Hameur Bouazza had volleyed Aidy Boothroyd's team level in the 26th minute.

The look on Rooney's face as he outmuscled Jordan Stewart for a ball he had no right to win was telling. Watford's equaliser had clearly irked him and only 90 seconds had passed as he charged down the right to set up Ronaldo for a goal that largely ended the contest.

Boothroyd's team gave everything in the early stages of the second half. Their contribution should not be overlooked and they deserve enormous credit.

Had Bouazza's close-range volley crept the right side of the post three minutes after the interval, Watford could have given United a genuine scare. Boothroyd suggested afterwards that his team had "rattled" United... and for a time they did.

But class tells in the end and although some of United's defending was haphazard, their use of the ball — both in terms of speed and choice of pass — was imperious at times.

A low cross from the irrepressible Alan Smith presented Rooney with his second goal in the 66th minute and substitute Kieran Richardson was provided with a goal by the same player eight minutes from time.

Had it been easy for United? No. Were they ever going to do anything but win? No.

Boothroyd said: I wanted our players to put their heads on the pillow tonight knowing they could not have done any more and they did that. We had United rattled for a time in the second half and they were not always comfortable.

"But they have such fantastic players that it's impossible to stop them at times. It's going to take a fantastic side to stop them this season but I'm proud of my players."

With a Premiership game to come tomorrow against Sheffield United, Sir Alex Ferguson's league leaders now face the same challenge they faced when they won the Treble in 1999.

Rather worryingly, however, the Scot is not blessed with a healthy squad, as he was eight years ago.

On Saturday full back Patrice Evra was outstanding but elsewhere Ferguson's defence are falling apart.

With Gary Neville, Nemanja Vidic and Mikael Silvestre all injured, Rio Ferdinand now faces a fortnight out with a groin problem and it will be interesting to see how United cope.

Their defending — particularly under the high ball — was poor while keeper Edwin van der Sar is suffering a confidence crisis at the wrong time.

None of this will take the shine off Rooney's anticipation of a day out at the new Wembley but it may yet undermine his chances of winning more than one trophy this season.