Rooney Targets Record

Wayne Rooney admits he wants to overtake George Best and Dennis Viollet in the list of United's all-time goalscorers, but insists his main priority is retaining the title this season.

The 26-year-old striker netted twice in the 4-0 win over Aston Villa on Sunday, taking his tally for the season to 31 and his overall total to 178 – just one short of that set by Best and Viollet.

“It would be great to equal the record and hopefully surpass them,” declared Rooney. “It would be a great achievement that I would be proud of but I can’t really look at that at the minute. If it happens then great, hopefully it will before the end of the season, but I’m just concentrating on my game.

“It was nice to score two goals but I didn’t think my performance was good enough, I was disappointed with that but obviously I’m happy with the goals. It’s the points that are important at this time of the year and if I can score the goals that get those points then I’ll be pleased.”

United were rampant on Sunday and produced a performance of great attacking intent, bagging four goals to produce the perfect response to last Wednesday’s shock defeat to Wigan Athletic. Rooney’s early penalty, awarded in the seventh minute, also gave the Reds a perfect start.

“Obviously we were disappointed with our performance against Wigan but we had a chance to get that out of our system and keep that distance between us and Manchester City,” Rooney told MUTV. “It was a big game for us and we deserved to win, credit must go to the team.

“We created a few chances and they made quite a few blocks and saves, but it was a good result for us and we got the three points, which is the most important thing.

“It’s always nice to score a penalty and it settled us down a little bit. The goal just before half time was a great boost for us and a blow for them .There was only going to be one winner after that, thankfully we got two more goals.”

Three points against the Villains leaves United five clear of Roberto Mancini’s title rivals with just four games to go, a situation that could see the Reds lift the championship trophy after the Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium on April 30.

“A month or six weeks ago, if somebody told me that we’d be five points clear at this stage of the season then we would have been delighted. Next week against Everton is a massive game for us, we need to get three points there to make it an interesting night against Man City.”