Villa’s 14-year wait for major silverware goes on after Wayne Rooney came off the bench to clinch the Carling Cup for Manchester United at Wembley.

Rooney, surprisingly left out of United’s starting XI, headed home the winner after 74 minutes to break claret and blue hearts.

Martin O’Neill’s side had got off to a dream start at the national stadium when James Milner fired in from the penalty spot, only for the holders to quickly level courtesy of Michael Owen.

The clash was closely-contested from there but, ultimately, a moment of quality from Rooney made the difference just as Villa began to show signs of tiring.

It was a miserable end to what had been a day of great promise for the claret and blues, who were hoping to emulate the League Cup triumph of 1996 – their last major trophy success.

There were no real surprises in O’Neill’s line-up, with Brad Friedel preferred to Brad Guzan in goa,l but United counterpart Sir Alex Ferguson did spring one major shock by leaving Rooney on the bench.

Villa flew out of the starting blocks and within four minutes they were celebrating a penalty.

Ashley Young’s lobbed ball over the top sent Gabby Agbonlahor in a direct sprint with Nemanja Vidic towards goal, there was only going to be one winner and the United centre-back’s clumsy lunge sent the striker tumbling.

It was an obvious penalty but, much to the frustration of all those of a claret and blue persuasion, referee Phil Dowd failed to brandish the red card which should have followed, in fact he did not even book the Serb.

With John Carew on the bench, penalty-taking duties fell to Milner and the England star showed remarkable cool given the big occasion, calmly tucking a shot inside the right post to give O’Neill’s men a dream start.

The claret and blue half of Wembley was sent into delirium but there joy was to prove shortlived as United levelled within seven minutes after punishing an uncharacteristic error from Richard Dunne.

A clumsy touch from the Irishman allowed Dimitar Berbatov to snatch possession on the edge of Villa’s area, Dunne managed to make what looked a fine recovery tackle inside the box but, unfortunately for him, diverted the ball straight to Owen and the striker made no mistake with a clinical shot inside the right post.

Villa responded well to the setback and it took a fine save from Tomasz Kuszczak to palm away James Milner’s drive soon afterwards, while an Emile Heskey snapshot on 26 forced a routine save from the ex-Albion keeper.

But the clatet and blues could count themselves fortunate five minutes before the break, when Milner appeared to handle inside the box only for Dowd to wave play on.

There was bad news for Villa a minute later though when Rooney was introduced to the action, after Owen pulled up with a muscle strain.

But they had another slice of luck on the stroke of half-time, when Antonio Valencia took advantage of Stephen Warnock’s slip on the line to cross fell to Ji-Sung Park, only for the midfielder to see his shot cannon off the inside of the post before being cleared off the line by Carlos Cuellar and eventually scrambled clear.

Chances were few and far between in the early stages of the second period, with neither goalkeeper having a real save of note to make.

United’s grip on the game slowly grew and it took a fine save from Friedel to deny Michael Carrick, after the midfielder had been cleverly slipped in by Berbatov.

But soon claret and blue hearts were broken as Patrice Evra played a fine one-two with Berbatov before crossing for Rooney, who did what he does best with an inch-perfect looping header agonisingly beyond the reach of Friedel.

Villa legs looked to be fading badly and had Park released the unmarked Berbatov to send the Bulgarian clean through it could have been game over.

Rooney was a whisker away from grabbing his second when his header came off the inside of the post, before being scrambled to safety.

Nonetheless, the claret and blues refused to give up without a fight and it took a fine save from ex-Albion keeper Kuszczak eight minutes from time to tip Heskey’s deflected header over the bar.

But there was an agonising end to events when, a minute from time, Dunne arrived unmarked at the back post only to head Downing’s lobbed cross just past the post.