Rooney confesses Fergie fear

Wayne Rooney has admitted that the prospect of facing an enraged Sir Alex Ferguson acted as motivation to make amends for his error and inspire Manchester United's win over Hull City.

The England international had opened the scoring in first-half injury time in United's 3-1 win at the KC Stadium, but he produced a horrible back-pass in the build-up to Craig Fagan's equaliser from the penalty spot after half-time.

Rooney atoned for his mistake as he assisted Andy Dawson's own goal and provided Dimitar Berbatov with a simple finish to make sure that he was out of Ferguson's bad books.

The 24-year-old has confessed that his inspirational performance to help United regain the lead was stimulated by the thought of having to face the wrath of his manager.

Rooney told Sky Sports 1: "Obviously when they got the equaliser it was a mistake by myself and thankfully we got the win, or I don't think the manager would have been too pleased with me.

"It wasn't a nice feeling, I didn't want to let the lads down and at the time it looked like that but it happens and we got the win in the end."

Defending Premier League champions United moved back above Arsenal in second place as a result of the victory over Hull, while they also closed the gap on leaders Chelsea to two points.

Rooney acknowledged that it has been a topsy-turvy campaign, with numerous unpredictable results, and described his determination to help United maintain some steadiness in 2010.

He added: "I think it's a mad league, a lot of teams are dropping points and it's really close. Hopefully we can be more consistent in the second half (of the season) and retain our title.

"We knew it was a big game. We had some good breaks and thankfully we got some goals at the end.

"It was quite open. Hull committed a lot of men forward and it did leave us spaces to counter-attack."