Macheda hails dream day

Federico Macheda fired Man United back to the Premier League summit and declared it was the "best day of his life".

With Wayne Rooney suspended and Dimitar Berbatov injured, Sir Alex Ferguson turned to Macheda to help rescue the Red Devils' flagging title charge as they trailed Aston Villa midway through the second half at Old Trafford.

The young Italian brought more focus to United's attack. Then, after Cristiano Ronaldo had brought the champions level 10 minutes from time, Macheda curled home a brilliant injury-time winner to allow Ferguson's team to regain their one-point advantage over Liverpool.

"I have dreamt of a day like this," added Macheda.

"I just turned and shot and ran to my family. They are very proud of me."

Macheda was supposed to be returning to his native Italy to play a match but was called back by Ferguson, who wanted to put the 17-year-old on the bench for the first time.

"I was very surprised to get a chance but now I just want to keep going," said the former Lazio trainee, who moved to Old Trafford in 2007.

It looked like being a desperate afternoon for United, who had seen the early lead provided by Ronaldo wiped out by headers either side of the interval from John Carew and Gabriel Agbonlahor.

Villa were worthy of their lead but, as usual, Ferguson refused to accept defeat.

"In those situations, I gamble," said the Scot.

"Winning is the name of the game at this club.

"Risks are part of football and this club has been that way for a long time.

"I love to see that kind of adventure. Yes, there are times when we don't defend properly - and we didn't defend well today - but there is always a goal threat.

"There is always a chance we can win the match - and that is more exciting than anything."

A crestfallen Martin O'Neill felt his side were highly unfortunate, not least because referee Mike Riley missed a foul on Ashley Young in the build-up to Macheda's winner.

"The officials also got three offside decisions wrong when we were clean through," he complained.

"The thing is we can take great heart from the performance.

"But we are really disappointed with the result because I didn't feel we deserved that.

"You are never comfortable against United but I felt we were in commanding form and looked as though we could withstand anything."