Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney's goal similar to Cristiano Ronaldo's that put the club on course for title By the end, all four of United's international strikers were on the field and the best of the lot, Robin Van Persie, ended the game heading a goal-bound effort from Philippe Senderos off his own line. The Dutchman has been at Old Trafford less than a season but he already appears to have the spirit of the club and its manager in his bones. The comparison with Ronaldo was not lost on either Rooney or Ferguson, with the forward, who has now scored 10 goals in his last 10 games, predicting it could send them on a similar roll to that of six years ago. "I fancied myself to score," Rooney said. It was a little bit similar to Cristiano's goal. After that goal we went on to win the league and hopefully that can happen after today. We had a lot of chances, first half in particular. Sometimes you wonder if it's going to be your day but we kept going and thankfully got the goal and the three points. The goal was similar in execution as well as circumstance. Both came from the inside left channel, though Rooney had a little more help in his than Ronaldo. Where the Portugese picked up the ball inside the Fulham half and tore at the defence, Rooney was helped on his way by an error from Senderos. After a largely impressive afternoon the Swiss defender conjured a memory of his Arsenal days, missing a routine punt from David de Gea that he should have headed away. Rooney, shunted left when Hernández came on, broke onto the loose ball and, with Aaron Hughes retreating for fear of bringing the England forward down, worked the ball precisely into the bottom right-hand corner of Mark Schwarzer's goal. It was reward, Rooney said, for persistence. We had a lot of chances, in the first half in particular. Sometimes you wonder if it's going to be your day, but we kept going and thankfully got the goal and the three points. Rafael clearing off the line [from Ruiz] was a key moment. We had chances too but had to dig in and battle, and we did that to get a massive three points. United captain Patrice Evra said the win was evidence of championship spirit. We have a winning mentality. This is the Manchester United spirit. That is the strength of the boss. It is what he instils in us every year. That is why we want to win every game. Fuham's impressive German full-back, Sascha Riether agreed. United are champions if they can win games like that. It's just the same in Germany with Bayern Munich. Sometimes you you think you have done well, created chances but in the end, they win 1-0. That's a good team.