Sir Alex Ferguson believes Wayne Rooney is back to his clinical best after the Manchester United striker ended the worst goal drought of his professional career in the 3-0 victory over West Ham.
Rooney netted a first half penalty on Saturday to secure his first goal in 1,113 minutes, a streak of futility for club and country that dated back to late March.
Further goals from Nani and Dimitar Berbatov rounded off a routine win for Ferguson's team.
The United manager has no doubt that Rooney's return to goalscoring spells good news, both for United and England who start their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with a group game against Bulgaria on Friday and whose manager Fabio Capello was a spectator at Old Trafford.
"Of course it does," said Ferguson when asked if the goal will relieve pressure on his forward. "But his performance for me was the thing that stood out.
"He enjoyed his football, he was full of energy, which is good. He has not had a lot of football, he had a virus last week and has not trained much this week but he looked more like himself.
"I have said time and time again, strikers need to score and now he has got off the mark. He took his penalty well but he worked his socks off. He needed games and that 90 minutes will bring him along.
{{/usCountry}}"I have said time and time again, strikers need to score and now he has got off the mark. He took his penalty well but he worked his socks off. He needed games and that 90 minutes will bring him along.
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