Vital Hat-trick Thrills Rooney

Wayne Rooney believes practice paid off as he completed the fifth hat-trick of his United career from the penalty spot.

Although his second goal was also his 100th in the Premier League for the Reds, the number ten took the greatest satisfaction from his spot-kick, awarded when, at 2-2, West Ham captain Matthew Upson was deemed by referee Lee Mason to have handled Fabio's cutback.

"I thought the first one was important but I was delighted to score the goal that put us in front was great because I knew then we'd go on and win the game," said Wayne.

"I'd been working all week with Greeny [West Ham and England goalkeeper Robert Green] on penalties so I was a bit unsure what to do. But I stuck to what I'd been doing all week and maybe Greeny thought I was going to change it because thankfully I sent him the wrong way and got the goal."

It was Rooney's three goals in 14 minutes that brought the Reds roaring back from 0-2 down to 3-2, but he was keen as always to share the credit with his team-mates and, indeed, his manager Sir Alex Ferguson following two key changes of personnel in the second half. Firstly, Javier Hernandez came on at the restart for Patrice Evra; later Dimitar Berbatov replaced Ji-sung Park who had made his first start since 26 December.

"I think the substitutions were good ones and they won the game for us. Chicharito is a massive threat and then Berbatov came on - although he didn't get a goal, he was fantastic for us. He held the ball up brilliant and allowed the runners to run off him."

Like his colleague Ryan Giggs, Rooney denied he was worried by the half-time scoreline of 2-0 to West Ham.

"Upton Park is a difficult place to come but we took encouragement from the first half when we got ourselves into good areas. We didn't take our chances then. But we knew if we got the next goal we were capable of getting more and thankfully that was the case."