The Old Trafford faithful may sing ‘there is only one Wayne Rooney’ but it was another Rooney that grabbed all the headlines with a thrilling match-winning goal in Newcastle’s dramatic 2-1 win over Beijing in Wednesday night’s Asian Champions League match at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
Talented young striker Sean Rooney came off the Newcastle bench to become an instant hero when he netted a quality strike in the dying seconds of injury time to hand the Jets one of the most important victories in their short career.
The win lifts Newcastle to second spot in Group E of the ACL and they travel to Korea to face K-League team Ulsan Hyundai in their final group match needing only a draw to progress to the next stage of the prestigious competition.
Twenty-year-old Rooney was still trying to come to terms with his new-found stardom at the Jets’ recovery session on Thursday morning.
“When I scored I didn’t know what to do … I can’t explain it,” he said.
“Ljubo (Milicevic) did well to get the ball through to me and I thought do I take it in or do I shoot and I went ‘I’m going to shoot’.”
“I wanted to score. I told my friends and family if I get on I am going to score and I did and I am pretty happy that I did.”
The goal put Newcastle’s ACL campaign back on track after it appeared the former A-League champions were headed out of the competition trailing 1-0 with just a few minutes of regular time.
But Sasho Petrvoski’s equaliser and Rooney’s last-gasp strike handed the Jets a lifeline and it repaid the faith the club showed in the youngster when they plucked him out of Sydney FC’s Youth team near the end 2008/09 A-League season.
Newcastle coach Gary van Egmond said he was overjoyed for the young striker.
“I am really happy for him, he is a likeable kid,” van Egmond said. “He has been working really hard for us and he is an out-and-out goal-scorer.”
“He has always had a knack of scoring goals even from a young age, so I am overjoyed for him.”
Rooney, who is still getting back to 100 per cent match fitness after suffering a knee injury at training recently, said he hoped he had shown enough of his talent to extend his contract at Newcastle, which currently runs out at the end of this ACL campaign.
“Gary (van Egmond) has been very supportive instructing me what my role is when I come on,” Rooney said.
“Hopefully I can keep scoring – that is my job – to score goals so hopefully I can keep doing it.”
“I love Newcastle, the boys are good, the coaching staff are good so everything is great here.”