Robin van Persie felt compelled to thank his colleagues after scoring his first goal in in eleven games during United's vital victory at Stoke City.

The Dutchman won and converted a second half penalty to net his first Reds goal since February before joining Sir Alex Ferguson, his staff and the substitutes on the visitors' bench at the Britannia Stadium.

"I had to score that one and thankfully it went in, and after that the relief of a couple of weeks came out, I would say," laughed the Dutchman. "I wanted to celebrate with everyone; with the players, the staff, with all the players involved even on the bench because they've been great to me from day one.

"Even when sometimes it is a little bit harder, they still believe in me and they still support me and help me wherever they can. That's why I wanted to join everyone."

Image:MUFC 
Wayne Rooney paid tribute to van Persie's bravery in deciding to take the penalty, with the weight of expectation bearing down after so long without a goal.

"I'm sure he would have thought about it (the drought) before he took the penalty, but he showed a lot of courage to step up and put it away. Credit to him for that.

"Every player in the world has had a few games on the run without scoring. Robin's kept his head down, kept working and thankfully today he's got his goal and hopefully that'll kick him on because he'll be a massive player in the next few games for us."

Robin was speaking to MUTV and Sky Sports.