06 October 2006
VIDEO: Leighton Baines v Germany
Wigan defender Leighton Baines scores a screamer to give England a 1-0 first leg win over Germany.
Wayne Rooney has been rewarded for his best performance of the season by picking up the Nationwide England Player of the Weekend award.

The Manchester United striker set up Louis Saha for United's second and rattled the bar with a thumping strike as The Reds came from a goal down to beat Wigan Athletic 3-1.

However, it was another young Lion, Leighton Baines, who looked set to steal the headlines.

A week after firing an unstoppable 30 yarder for England Under-21s against Germany, Baines proved his Ricoh Arena thunderbolt was no fluke by unleashing a long-range free-kick which screamed past Edwin van der Sar.

But Rooney then took centre stage, chesting the ball down in a congested penalty box before rifling against the crossbar from 15 yards.

Moments later a brilliant pass with the outside of his boot should have set-up Saha for an equaliser, but the Frenchman dragged his shot wide.

The same combination would not miss a second time though. With United now level through Nemanja Vidic, Rooney crossed for Saha to put the visitors ahead on 66 minutes.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer added a third, but it was Rooney that the two managers were raving about at the final whistle.

"It was his best performance in a United shirt this season," said Sir Alex Ferguson. "There have been signs he's getting back to his best and he showed what he's about today.

An equally impressed Paul Jewell added: "Wayne Rooney is a world-class player. There's been a lot of nonsense spoken about him in the last week. People who say he's not a top player don't know what they are talking about."