Manchester United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson: Two Goals Against Aston Villa Will Help Wayne Rooney
Posted by admin on Tuesday 1 February 2011
Timing of the goals crucial to victory.
Sir Alex Ferguson praised two-goal Wayne Rooney after the striker bagged a brace to help Manchester United to a 3-1 win over Aston Villa at Old Trafford.
A goal in the first and last minutes of the first half by the England international set United on the path to victory and whilst Darren Bent grabbed a goal back for the visitors, Nemanja Vidic’s second-half strike sealed victory.
Speaking to Sky Sports News after the game, Ferguson praised his striker, who has found goals hard to come by this season, for his contribution.
“It was a marvellous early goal. Wayne [Rooney] capitalises from [Edwin] van der Sar’s fantastic strike of the ball,” he said.
“It was really good vision from Edwin, but what a finish, marvellous finish.
"Goals always help strikers there’s no question about that. But he [Rooney] has always got a great appetite to play, everyone should remember that. It’s an in-bred thing in the boy. He has this great attitude to work and fight and he gets his rewards eventually.”
The United boss also admitted that the timing of the goals also helped his side. Rooney’s opener was timed at just 48 seconds, his second goal came in stoppage time at the end of the first half and United’s third came five minutes after Bent had seemingly dragged Villa back into the game.
“It was a game of good timing, an early goal, one right on half-time and they when they scored the goal we upped the tempo again and scored the third goal,” added Ferguson.
The win maintains United's five-point lead at the top of the table and the Scot urged his side to keep their momentum going.
“I think what happens in the run-in is you keep knocking off the games, if we keep winning, we knock each one off as we go along and eventually you run out of games,” he said.
“The aim is to keep the momentum going, keep the work rate up, we were good tonight but we had to work hard against a good Aston Villa team, and hopefully it gets us where want to be.”
