Rio hails Wazza impact

Rio Ferdinand says the introduction of Wayne Rooney swung the FA Cup third round tie at Aston Villa in United's favour.

Up until Rooney's arrival as a substitute in the 70th minute, the Reds had struggled to create any real openings during a somewhat dull match.

Cristiano Ronaldo struck the killer blow, however, nine minutes from time, bundling home Ryan Giggs' cross, before Rooney sealed a 2-0 victory with a low drive past Scott Carson.

"Wayne is a fantastic footballer with bundles of energy. He may have missed the last couple of games [with a virus], but he looked very fresh when he came on and I think he was the difference," Ferdinand told BBC Sport.

"We always knew it was going to be a tough game, but I thought we were grinding them down gradually in the second half and we had a lot of possession.

"When Wayne came on, the openings started to come and thankfully we managed to stick the ball in the back of the net."

Some in the football world have questioned the importance of the FA Cup in the build-up to this season's third round fixtures, but Ferdinand insists it's a special tournament and remains one of United's major priorities.

"The FA Cup is up there with the top trophies to win," he declared. "We don't go into any competition thinking that we don't care about the tournament - I think that's very disrespectful.

"No matter what team goes out there to play for Manchester United, we want to win. We never go anywhere and try and settle for a draw. It's not in our nature to do that and the manager wouldn't settle for that either.

"We came here to win and thankfully we did that. Hopefully we can go on a run in the Cup because to win it would be fantastic."