Carling Cup final: Michael Owen looks to break a barren run

By Graham Chase Published: 11:00PM GMT twenty-seven February 2010

Muted: Michael Owen celebrates in his still approach after scoring opposite West Ham this week Photo: AP

If he creates it on to the margin for Sunday afternoon"s Carling Cup final, he will be creation his initial entrance in a last for 7 years.

When he scampered past Lee Dixon in to the Millennium Stadium"s shadows in 2001 to measure his second in a 2-1 FA Cup last win over Arsenal, prior to assisting Liverpool to feat in the Uefa Cup last usually days later, he can frequency have illusory that he would have usually one some-more award to show for the subsequent 9 years.

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That came at Cardiff, 7 years ago subsequent week, when he capitalised on tardy fortifying by Mikaël Silvestre to foe transparent and sign Liverpool"s 2-0 League Cup last feat over his stream employers.

At this theatre of his career, Owen, 30, could not be criticised for feeling opposing emotions if he picked up an additional award as an new substitute, as he did in Liverpool"s League Cup win 9 years ago.

What Sir Alex Ferguson called "a standard Michael Owen goal" a well-timed run in the left channel with a drop of the left shoulder move a shot in to the tip corner, in the 3-0 violence of West Ham in midweek has positively put the brazen in the manager"s thoughts.

Even if Ferguson starts Owen on the bench, he feels that with games at the new Wembley traditionally being low-scoring affairs with a decent possibility of additional time, Owen is expected to have a poignant purpose to fool around this afternoon.

Ferguson believes that but Wayne Rooney, who has plundered twenty-seven goals, Owen would have featured some-more prominently this season, quite with his run of fitness.

"He has lerned each day here; he has never longed for training. He has been terrific, he has never been a problem," Ferguson said. "He looks pointy and I think he has softened as a footballer given entrance to us.

"His ubiquitous believe of the game, his joining fool around and his passing... these things have been great given he has come to us. He"s finished well but the usually complaint that Michael Owen has got is Wayne Rooney. That"s his problem.

"I think we are saying a healthy growth with Rooney, that we knew was going to happen. If you see at his headers recently, he has been free in each header he has had in the past couple of weeks. That tells you something."

To think that it all proposed for Rooney, right afar with a Champions League feat and 3 true Premier League titles, with a win in this competition, interjection to the 4-0 hammering of Wigan in Cardiff in 2006.

Rooney proudly displayed his award as his team-mates doused each alternative in Champagne in dressing-room celebrations that were seen as demonstrative of how far Manchester United, who were to miss out on the Premier League pretension for the third true season, had fallen.

But that success, with Cristiano Ronaldo additionally emerging, and entrance before long after the arrivals of Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra, was seen as a key stepping mill towards all the success they have enjoyed since.

Ferguson is some-more sensitive to the foe given it has finished afar with two-legged ties and positively enjoyed the semi-final conflict with City.

That Ronaldo played in last season"s chastisement shoot-out win over Tottenham shows how severely he takes it, nonetheless the actuality that the sauce room was a small some-more pale additionally demonstrates how far United have come given 2006.

But if United get their hands on nonetheless some-more precious metal this afternoon, the normally-restrained Owen will probably find himself dancing with Rafael.