CRISTIANO Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney pounced late on to send Manchester United into the fourth round of the FA Cup.

The game looked to be heading towards a goalless draw but with nine minutes remaining Ryan Giggs crossed for Portuguese star Ronaldo to finish from close range.

And Rooney, who injected new life into the Reds when he came on after 70 minutes, sealed the win with a smartly taken goal.

The result means United have now won 13 successive matches against Villa, while boss Sir Alex Ferguson maintained his proud record of never having lost a third round tie in the FA Cup.

There had been much pre-match hype about Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor being a contender for the England squad under new boss Fabio Capello, who was watching on from the stand.

Capello took his place at the front of the directors’ box where he was flanked by Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick and director of communications Adrian Bevington.

Agbonlahor gave an early demonstration of his pace to the Italian with a break down the left flank before squaring an inviting low cross towards Stiliyan Petrov.

But his first touch was a poor one and Edwin Van der Sar was able to collect.

Anderson was quick to spot a gap down the middle and made a powerful 50-yard run which ended with Scott Carson saving his left-footed drive from the edge of the Villa box at the second attempt.

Drive

Petrov was only just too high with a dipping 30-yard drive in an open-ended start to the game. Agbonlahor turned sharply but Rio Ferdinand was alert to the situation and blocked his shot.

United started to enjoy more of the play territorially with Anderson looking threatening in the centre of the park.

The Brazilian made another good break into the Villa box only to be eventually crowded out by the combined efforts of Nigel Reo-Coker and Wilfred Bouma.

Giggs missed a golden chance to put United ahead a minute before the interval after a mistake by Carson.

The on-loan Liverpool keeper should have dealt better with a dipping drive from Ronaldo but only parried it straight to Giggs.

But, with the goal at his mercy, the former Wales international pushed his shot wide and seemed surprised by the pace of the ball.

Villa began the second half brightly and John Carew flicked on a Young centre which Van der Sar saved down to his right even though the ball was going wide.

Michael Carrick teed up Anderson on the edge of the Villa area and, although his shot contained plenty of power, it flew well wide of Carson’s goal.

Petrov blocked a shot from Ronaldo and then Martin Laursen was relieved when he deflected a Nemanja Vidic header past his own post from a Giggs corner.

Rooney could have won the game for United after entering the action but he shot over the bar after exchanging passes with Ronaldo.

But with nine minutes left Ronaldo scrambled over the line from a Giggs centre for his 19th goal of the campaign.

And with 60 seconds remaining Rooney drilled a powerful shot past Carson into the corner of the net after Ronaldo’s initial effort had been blocked.

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