Fergie lauds Ronaldo

The 19-year-old Portuguese winger, who lit up a dour game with his dribbling skills, gave United a 44th minute lead before second-half goals from Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, one of them a penalty, sealed United's record 11th FA Cup triumph.

"We're delighted, as you should be, to win the Cup," Ferguson told a news conference.

"You always say at the start of the season at this club that you'll try to win a trophy and we've done that.

"The first half wasn't easy. There were periods when we found it difficult to get a flow to our game... but we got the break of scoring just before halftime which killed it for them.

"It opened the game up for us and the second half was a convincing performance."

As for Ronaldo, who finished his first season in English football in real style, Ferguson said: "Everyone's got their ideas about what his potential is but we've seen potential in that player better than anything in Europe. What we have to do is to realise that potential.

"It took him time to get used to British football but with every passing week he's got better and better -- and to my mind he was the man of the match," Ferguson added after England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson had given Ruud van Nistelrooy the honour.

Along with Ronaldo's pace, physique and balance, Ferguson said: "He's got a fantastic personality, great strength of mind and I think those things will help him more than anything.

"It's less the coaching, it's the character that I think he's got within him that will take him really far in the game."

United's comfortable win over first division opposition salvaged a season that had brought disappointment in both the premier league and Champions League.

Looking ahead, Ferguson expects United to bounce back from those disappointments, as they have done in themselves in that way and they need to prove themselves again...they won't be satisfied the past.

"They've proved until they do that," he said.

Millwall player/manager Dennis Wise, bidding to become the first player to win the cup with three different clubs, had undergone treatment in Italy for a muscle problem earlier this week and admitted he was not fully fit.

"I was feeling it and am still feeling it," he said. "We had kids on the bench but we felt it wouldn't be right to have gone with one and put that responsibility on them."

Wise, a Cup winner with Wimbledon in 1988 and Chelsea in 1997 and 2000, agreed with Ferguson that Ronaldo -- rather than Van Nistelrooy -- should have been man of the match and that the Portuguese winger's headed goal was decisive.

But Wise added: "The lads have done us proud. Everyone thought we were going to get absolutely annihilated. But we gave it a go and that's all I can ask of them."