Every player, manager and supporter will have a bogey team - a side that no matter what, always seems to come out on top against you or your club.

For Aston Villa, that side is probably Manchester United. After all, since beating the Red Devils 3-1 at Villa Park in August 1995, Villa have won just two of the last 44 meetings between the two sides.

So, when Villa were paired with Sir Alex Ferguson's men at the third-round stage of the FA Cup four times in seven seasons during the 2000s, you can only imagine the disbelief among the claret and blue half of Birmingham.

It was on this day seven years ago that the last of those quartet of encounters was played, with Villa the hosts.

The first half was relatively mundane, with United's Ryan Giggs spurning the best chance on the stroke of the break when he shot wide after Villa goalkeeper Scott Carson had palmed away Cristiano Ronaldo's effort.

Giggs was then involved after the restart as United went close again, but Nemanja Vidic couldn't deflect the Welsh winger's corner on target.

However, it wasn't until the 70th-minute introduction of Wayne Rooney from the bench that United would make their domination count.

The striker had missed the last two encounters with a virus, but in front of watching England manager Fabio Capello, the 22-year-old showed that he was back to full match fitness.

Moments after he had fired over, Rooney was involved in the build-up which ended with Giggs crossing towards the back post for Ronaldo, who ghosted beyond a static Wilfred Bouma to break the deadlock in 81st minute.

Then, Rooney made sure of the outcome and United's place in the fourth round in the final minute when he lashed in from 20 yards.

His cameo made an impression on Villa striker John Carew, who said after the final whistle: "He created two or three chances when I could see he did a 40 or 50-yard sprint to get in the box. A player like that is worth gold. He missed one chance but his run from midfield was unbelievable.

"Not many forwards would even think about that and on the [second] goal he did it again. They should call Rooney Braveheart because he is playing with a big heart. You can count on one hand the players who work as hard as him."

Meanwhile, new England boss Capello added to the praise by saying: "It was good to be at a game where a lot of the players were English.

"And of course to see a player like Wayne Rooney come on as a substitute in such good form and have a major impact on the game was good for me on my first day."

VILLA: Carson; Mellberg, Laursen, Davies, Bouma (Gardner); Petrov (Maloney), Reo-Coker, Barry, Young; Carew (Moore), Agbonlahor

MAN UNITED: Van der Sar; Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Park (Rooney), Anderson, Carrick, Giggs (O'Shea), Ronaldo; Saha (Hargreaves)