#2 vs. Newcastle United, 24th April 2005
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For newer fans of the game, it’s often hard to appreciate what a force of nature the young Rooney was when he initially burst onto the scene – a mix of power, skill and a fiery personality made him essentially unstoppable when he was on form. And at times, he only needed a split-second to utterly destroy a defence. This was one such time.
Rooney was actually having a pretty underwhelming game prior to the goal – you can hear the commentator mention that he was looking likely to be substituted, in fact. The reason? He’d become infuriated with the incompetence of referee Neale Barry, who’d turned down a penalty claim by Rooney’s teammate Alan Smith and seemed unable to spot a series of fouls by Newcastle striker Alan Shearer.
Just moments after Rooney had been barking at Barry again, the ball was pinged towards Newcastle’s box where it was cleared by a weak header from Peter Ramage. Seemingly channelling all of his anger and aggression, Rooney sprinted forward and caught the ball with a thunderous volley. The ball flew straight into the top corner, far beyond the reach of Shay Given.
It was an unbelievable goal in a sense that it didn’t involve subtlety or delicate skill – more the bottling of everything that made Rooney great in his youth – explosive power with a certain amount of reckless anger. It was simply amazing.
