The Portugal international made just his fifth appearance since the turn of the year, but put in a great performance to fire his side to the sixth round of the FA Cup

Manchester United winger Nani hopes to have proven his worth to Sir Alex Ferguson after scoring from the bench against Reading in the FA Cup.

The Portugal international came on as a substitute and proved to be a catalyst for the Red Devils, notching in the second half with a close range volley, before setting up Chicharito for their second of the match.

Nani has only managed 16 appearances for the Red Devils this season and was linked with a January move to Serie A side Roma after finding his first-team chances at Old Trafford limited.

“I think everyone is always ready to help the team. I always think like that. If I get my opportunity I just want to get on and try to help the team,” he told ESPN.

“That’s what happened, and I am very happy for this night.

“Yeah, I tried a lot [of attempts on goal]. Eventually I scored the first goal, that changed the game, and I’m so pleased to give one assist to Chicha [Chicharito] and help the team on this big win today.”

The 26-year-old was involved in a car crash on Friday evening when a vehicle driven by a police officer hit his £180,000 Bentley while responding to an emergency call, however the attacker confirmed he was fine and was happy to be playing football.

“It was not a big crash, but yes I am happy to have nothing bad, but that’s happened in life, the most important thing is today. I’m so happy for the beautiful day, and keep working hard,” Nani explained.

Chicharito hailed Nani’s performance at Old Trafford and was relieved to get past a stubborn Royals side.

“We know that it would be very difficult thankfully we scored twice, so we are very happy,” he added.

“We were struggling in the last few minutes because Reading really went for it but we were able to hang on. We knew that the rival in front [of us] was a very difficult one, and thankfully we scored twice in the last minutes.

“We were struggling a little bit because they wanted to score the draw one [equaliser], but we’re very happy because we get through.

“I think his [Nani] first touch he almost scored an unbelievable volley, so he was brilliant today. He scored, he made a few chances for us and the assist to me.

“I think we wanted to be respectful with them because they are a very good team throughout and they do the best to try to get the draw, to get the other match [replay] in their house, but like Nani said we’re happy, we’re really pleased with the result.

“Right now we need to start thinking about QPR because we want to keep that gap that we have in the league.”