United fans prepare to show their true colours at Wembley

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Wayne Rooney heads to score against Milan at San Siro on Tuesday. Photograph: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images

Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted Wayne Rooney's willingness to play out of position resulted in him not being used properly last season.

Rooney took his outstanding domestic performances on to the European stage on Tuesday with his two-goal contribution to United's 3-2 victory over Milan in San Siro. But it is perhaps no surprise Rooney is blossoming in his preferred attacking role following Cristiano Ronaldo's exit for Real Madrid last summer.

"We probably didn't use him [Rooney] properly last season," Ferguson told the US-based radio station Sirius. "We probably exploited his eagerness and enthusiasm to play anywhere. But we know his strengths, we know where he's best and that's where we're using him this season.

"We talk about world-class players and I think that's a misused quote a lot of the time but, when you see his performances of late, you know you're talking about a really world-class player. He is now on 25 goals and there are still 14 or 15 matches to go, maybe more depending on how we do in Europe."

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Sir Alex Ferguson hailed the resolve of his champions after the Reds bounced back from defeat at Everton with a convincing victory over West Ham.

The Reds' limp display at Goodison Park allowed Chelsea to forge a four point lead at the head of the Premier League table, and Tuesday's victory cut the gap to a solitary point. As important as victory was, the United manager was delighted to see his side's desire to regain momentum in the hunt for a fourth straight title.

"We had to win," Sir Alex admitted to MUTV. "Saturday was disappointing, I think we all feel we were a bit drained by the emotions of the game in Milan, but you have to recover. I think what we showed tonight was a great appetite for the game.

"We were hungry to win the match and I think we deserved it thoroughly. But the football was good, we made chances, we had a good appetite and a good spread of our game. We used the ball very well in the second half."

United's attack combined to score three eye-catching goals against the Hammers, with Wayne Rooney's pair of headers preceding a clinical late third goal from substitute Michael Owen.

"It (the first) was a great, exciting goal," he said. "It was a great crossfield pass, a first-time delivery from Valencia and a marvellous header from Wayne. Then Valencia played a great one-two with Dimitar and it was a marvellous cross and a good finish from Wayne.

"Then Michael did what he always does. He makes great runs between defenders. It was a nice bit of football and a really good finish. We could have scored a lot of goals in the second half."

At the other end, two of the architects of a sixth successive home Premier League clean sheet also drew praise. Ben Foster and Nemanja Vidic made their first starts since November and December respectively, but prompted positive feedback form Sir Alex.

"Ben had two great saves in the second half – one in particular from Diamanti was an excellent save – and he did his job well," said the manager. "I think he was a bit anxious. His kicking was maybe a bit anxious, but his goalkeeping other than that was good.

"And Nemanja was absolutely brilliant. He was majestic in the air, he was powerful, his presence in itself is important, so it’s good to have him back."

Vidic's return bolsters the Reds' push for a record-breaking 19th league title, a quest which will need external help from other teams as United seek to reel in Chelsea. The Blues host Manchester City on Saturday, and Sir Alex is hopeful Roberto Mancini's side can prove unlikely allies.

"Well we hope so," he smiled. "City of course are a good side. They’re chasing that fourth place, they’ve got a lot of good players and they’ll have a chance because Chelsea are coming back from a game against Inter."

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Arsene Wenger may have described it as a "non-trophy" but Sir Alex Ferguson insists the Carling Cup is a pot worth winning.

Not even the knowledge Sunday's encounter with Aston Villa at Wembley will lack the raw emotion and drama of those two memorable semi-final confrontations with Manchester City last month can shake Ferguson's determination to add another trophy to his incredible Manchester United CV.

So, while Wenger disputes the notion a Carling Cup win would represent the end of his Arsenal trophy drought, it is a stance Ferguson does not share.

"Wembley is an occasion. It has always been that way," said Ferguson.

"But the only way you can enjoy Wembley is by winning. We have got an opportunity to win something on Sunday. It is not a nice day when you lose."

Ferguson did once view the League Cup as a nuisance in United's pursuit of the major prizes.

Although the Red Devils did reach three finals in four years in the early 1990s, between 1994 and 2003 there was nothing.

Yet this weekend, United will compete in their fourth in eight years and their third in five, confirmation of the success enjoyed by the Football League's decision to exempt teams involved in European combat to the last 32, third-round stage.

"All of a sudden you find yourself in a semi-final after playing three games. Once you get to a semi-final the focus changes. It definitely makes a difference."

Indeed, those two semi-final encounters will be carved into the history books.

An amazing 180 minutes, full of passion and controversy, were ultimately settled by an injury-time Wayne Rooney header, a deserved United triumph against a City team desperate to make a statement of their own future intent.

"I don't think the final can reach the same level of emotion as the semi," acknowledged Ferguson.

"It is a different type of game."

There are no 'noisy neighbours' for a start, just a team carefully pieced together by Martin O'Neill that was good enough to take four points off United this term, including that long-awaited Old Trafford victory.

A grudge, if there is one, comes from the 1994 final meeting between the sides when a Villa team managed by Ron Atkinson recorded a 3-1 win that ultimately cost Ferguson a domestic treble.

"I hope we are involved in a Treble this time too," said Ferguson.

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Any silverware is worth winning.

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just hopethat whatever happens, no INJURIES for MU.

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Manchester United fans will be decked out in green and gold again at Wembley. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images

When a Manchester United supporter still known only as "chatmaster" floated the idea on an internet messageboard that fans might defy the debt-laden Glazer family's ownership by wearing green and gold, he can surely not have dreamed the scale the demonstration would reach. At tomorrow's Carling Cup final against Aston Villa, United fans in their thousands will arrive at Wembley sporting scarves or shirts in those original colours of Newton Heath, the club formed in 1878 by workers on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, which later became Manchester United.

It will, surely, be the first time in football history that fans choose a showpiece final to protest en masse against their club's owners, and that signifies the remarkably educated nature of this United fans' campaign. The half-hearted argument that they have nothing to demonstrate about given three Premier League championships, a Champions League trophy and now yet another Wembley final since the Glazers bought the club in 2005, is having no impact.

Last month the Glazers published their bond-raising prospectus setting out the details of their ownership. The fans know that Sir Alex Ferguson and his team's success has been achieved despite the £716m of debt the Glazers loaded on to the club, the £464m fees and interest for which United have since become liable, and the £22.9m the family have taken out in fees and personal loans. No justification of that, or attempt to say it has not affected the club, from Ferguson, the chief executive, David Gill, or the Glazer family's representative, has swayed general outrage among fans whose ticket prices have steadily risen to pay for it all.

"It had a very powerful impact for fans to see from the Glazers, in their own document, that so much money is going out of the club," says Duncan Drasdo, chief executive of the Manchester United Supporters' Trust. "Green and gold has become so effective because it is a clear way to protest against the Glazers while supporting the team and proposing a better vision for United. It feels now like a widespread movement for change."

The yearning fuelled by this reaction is for United to be owned not by investors like the Glazers, but by the supporters, for the club to be truly a club. Given the scale of finance required to buy the Glazers out, presumably with a profit, and the £716m debts to take on or pay off, this is beyond a movement of ordinary fans. The trust, though, is in contact with the "red knights", a group of wealthy United supporters developing a bid to put to the Glazers. That, Drasdo says, is likely to involve 40 or so people taking a small stake each, and giving opportunities to the trust and fans generally to build up a shareholding.

Andy Green, an investment professional and United supporter who wrote a challenging open letter to Gill last week under his blogging name Andersred, says: "There is a very serious process going on in the City, with investors looking at a structure in which fans can develop as significant a stake as possible. Key will be persuading the Glazers to sell."

Keith Harris, the merchant banker and United supporter working with the red knights group, called this week for supporters to hit the Glazers where the prospectus showed they would be truly damaged, by withholding the money that services all that interest and fees. Drasdo says the prospect of replacing the Glazers with ownership more suited to United's character is hugely important to fans.

"Supporters do have very significant power because the Glazers' financial plans rely on fans continuing to pay their money in a variety of ways," he says. "I think when a very credible bid comes forward, fans will then feel most motivated to wield that power. We already know there is a huge drop in demand for executive facilities, and we believe many people will not renew those subscriptions next season."

The Glazers' representative has declined to comment on any alternative bid, and continued to say the family are long-term investors at United. Yet anger at the debts their takeover has imposed on the club, the other north American "leveraged buyout" at Liverpool, and Portsmouth's financial collapse has popularised the idea of supporter-owned football clubs beyond the passions of a small group of active fans. Supporters from the City of London to the Stretford End are asking why great sporting institutions like Manchester United should be owned by speculators from Florida with no previous connection to it, rather than the crowds of adherents who have supported it for life.

Some fans did turn away from Old Trafford immediately after the Glazer takeover in 2005, and today FC United of Manchester, the supporter-owned club that has since enjoyed three promotions to the UniBond League Premier Division, are holding a rally "Beyond the Debt" at their Gigg Lane ground, to promote supporter ownership.

"Those of us who formed FC United did so because we recognised there was a need to provide a positive, supporter and community-focused alternative," says Andy Walsh, the anti-Glazer campaigner turned general manager of the club. Today's rally will be attended by the Liverpool supporters group Spirit of Shankly, Portsmouth fans and Dave Boyle, the chief executive of Supporters Direct, the organisation that promotes democratic fan involvement in clubs.

Boyle and Walsh were in Brussels this week lobbying the European Parliament for an idea whose time, they believe, has come – together with Uefa, which enshrines in its document "Vision Europe" the idea that clubs should be clubs, owned by the fans. "In an ideal world," it says, "all clubs would be controlled and run by their members – eg supporters – according to democratic principles."

At Gigg Lane today and in green and gold at Wembley tomorrow, supporters will be united in campaigning for football to reassess its tortured relationship with money and rediscover its true colours.

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Sir Alex Ferguson admitted Nemanja Vidic was lucky not to be sent off in Manchester United's 2-1 Carling Cup final defeat of Aston Villa.

Villa won a penalty when Vidic fouled Gabriel Agbonlahor, but the Serb remained on the pitch despite denying the striker a goalscoring opportunity.

"We got a lucky break, he could have been sent off," said the United boss.

"I think it would be universally accepted they should be down to 10 men," said Villa boss Martin O'Neill.

"It's not a good decision by an otherwise fine referee, it's poor."

Vidic was outpaced by Agbonlahor and when he brought the Villa striker to the ground, it appeared he had prevented him from a clear goalscoring opportunity.

However, referee Phil Dowd - who showed four yellow cards during the game, including one to Vidic in the second half - opted against even cautioning the United centre-half at the time.

O'Neill added: "Obviously at Wembley, we score the penalty, they are down to 10 men for virtually the whole game. It's a major point in the game.

"It does not matter if it is in the first second or the 89th minute of the game, the decision is straightforward. It is so straightforward it is incredible."

Vidic himself accepted he had committed a foul, but did not believe it was worthy of a dismissal.

The 28-year-old said: "I don't think I deserved a red card as I did not tackle him from behind. But I admit it was definitely a penalty."

Former Premier League referee Graham Poll agreed that Dowd had made the correct decision, arguing that when Agbonlahor was brought down, he was facing away from goal.

"The referee would have looked for any reason he could not to send that player off because of the occasion," Poll told BBC Sport.

"People will say there's nothing about a cup final in the laws of the game, but you try to apply some common sense and understand the occasion and in that situation there was within law a technicality which meant he could leave Vidic on, and so he did."

United recovered from going behind to James Milner's resulting penalty to win 2-1, courtesy of a first-half Michael Owen strike and Wayne Rooney's 74th-minute header.

"It's hard to take," said O'Neill. "I thought we played splendidly, particularly in the first half, and we got in front. At half-time I felt we were very, very capable of winning the match. They are young and resilient and they'll fight back again."

Villa defender Richard Dunne was at fault for United's equaliser when he lost possession to Dimitar Berbatov and then his recovery tackle fell straight to Owen to score.

"It's very disappointing," said Dunne. "Both teams went for it, they got the goal in the last 20 minutes but we gave it a good go.

"We got a great start and that's what we wanted to do, but I made a mistake on halfway and against United they score. We had a few chances but unfortunately today wasn't our day."

Unlike his manager, Dunne felt the decision not to dismiss Vidic was not crucial to the outcome of the 50th League Cup final.

Dunne was part of the Villa side that failed to beat a United outfit reduced to 10 men in the Premier League earlier this season.

He said: "They got a man sent off at Villa Park and it didn't make a difference. It's better to play against 11 men and it made it a better game. It's their day today."