THE EVERTON youth academy is proud of Wayne Rooney and rightly so, but while talents can always be tutored, the greatest are largely self-taught. When Rooney was a kid in Croxteth he would escape as soon as the school bell rang to begin his real learning on a glass-strewn square of concrete behind the back garden of his little terraced house. There, with his friends, Rooney would practice impersonating Everton players. His big hero, he admits blushingly, was not Duncan Ferguson, Graeme Sharp or any other from the club’s tradition of powerful No 9s but dainty Anders Limpar. The fantasy often involved reliving games. Everton 1 Manchester United 0, the 1995 FA Cup final, was a favourite one.

For the second time in three years Rooney is in an FA Cup final for real and it is fitting that this most feisty of prodigies will make his first appearance at Wembley not in a facile international friendly but the most competitive of club occasions. He will be imagining something better than the 2005 final, in Cardiff, when a shining performance came to nothing and United fell to Arsenal on penalties. How desperate was Rooney’s wish to have another shot at a winners’ medal.

Cristiano Ronaldo has overshadowed him for much of the season, but not here. It was not just that Rooney set United on their way to Wembley with a goal that was - how else to describe it but - classically Rooney-esque. The rest of his football was as thunderous as his first strike. He was in a role, alternating between one flank and another as one of three deeplying attackers stationed behind Alan Smith, that is not supposed to suit him, and yet there was a spontenaeity and energy to his work, and a concertedness about how he brought his gifts to bear, that spoke of a player fully comfortable with his lot.

The contrast between Rooney’s form for United and his recent displays for England says much about how much easier he finds it to listen to Sir Alex Ferguson’s voice than Steve McClaren’s. And there is another factor. Rooney may now play his football on trimmed, verdant pitches but, just as on that concrete square in Croxteth, he is still knocking a ball about with pals. Around him are Rio Ferdinand, a pal he swaps music with, John O’Shea and Wes Brown, his video-game chums, Alan Smith, who cuts his hair when they room together on European trips, and Ronaldo, his accomplice when it comes to dressing room pranks. That Ronaldo’s new contract may net him even more than Rooney’s record-breaking deal with United, and that the Portuguese has hogged the accolades this season, will not produce from his contemporary the slightest bit of jealously.

Ronny and Rooney, despite what happened at the World Cup, are two halves of football’s most exciting buddy-movie. Amity may not have been on Rooney’s mind when he set up Ronaldo’s decisive goal for United. As Rooney bore in on Richard Lee he appeared to try a favourite trick of giving a goalkeeper “they eyes”. He looked to pass but ended up hitting what may have been a shot. Lee was alert and got some of his body on the ball but it ran free for Ronaldo to score. Rooney’s actions inside the box were important but what he did leading up to the goal was more significant. Dazed by Hameur Bouazza’s equaliser, United had become becalmed and it was Rooney who snapped them out of their torpor by smashing fearlessly through a challenge against the mountainous Clarke Carlisle on the touchline, winning the ball so Smith could play him free.

“There are some players who have a fire within them and he is one of them,” Ryan Giggs had said in the match programme. “It’s in his make-up. But take it out of him and you won’t get the same effect as a player. It’s all about striking a balance between that temperament and his ability. Roy Keane was like that, Paul Ince was like that — but wiht time they mellow and get the balance right. You just hope that the character of the player and the experiences of playing create that balance.” There was a too-fiery moment when Rooney leapt into a tackle with Tommy Smith and despite getting something on the ball followed through high and heedlessly to earn a booking. But, overall, he achieved balance.

Watford, especially at the start of the second half, had an intensity of effort that unsettled United and more of Ferguson’s team needed to take Rooney’s example and fight physical fire with fire. But ultimately Rooney’s skill was the reason United fans could enjoy the last quarter of the game with inflatable FA Cups held aloft and songs of Wembley in their throats. He could have had a hat-trick when Smith laid the ball off to him and he shot straight at Lee but his second goal was the one his team needed. It was a tap-in born of talent. It was a brainy run between full-back and centre-back that brought Rooney to the edge of the box and when he pointed for a pass to be delivered into his path, Michael Carrick was good enough to provide it.

Carlisle did well to half-inter-cept but with the ball running to Smith, Rooney kept going intelligently and was there when Smith crossed to sidefoot home.

It brought his FA Cup tally to four this season. His first goal here was as good as his chip over David James against Portsmouth in the third round. Adrian Mariappa had no answer when Rooney cut past him on the edge of the box. The shot Rooney then lasered high into the net past Lee was the sort to which no goalkeeper could have a riposte.