Manchester United's Wayne Rooney celebrates with Ander Herrera and Chris Smalling after scoring their first goal to break the all time goalscoring record for Manchester United on Jan 21, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

MANCHESTER — Deep into stoppage time with Manchester United facing defeat, Wayne Rooney bent a free kick high over the defense and into the Stoke goal.

A point was salvaged for United but the moment carried a far greater significance. It was Rooney's 250th goal for United — a record breaker.

Rooney's long wait to overhaul Bobby Charlton as the club's all-time leading scorer ended in front of the 79-year-old former United great on Saturday at Stoke.

"It's a proud moment for me and a huge honor to get that record, just a bit dampened by the result," said the 31-year-old Rooney, whose side remains sixth in the Premier League after the 1-1 draw. "It's about a career and I still feel there's a lot more to come, but overall it's a really proud moment for me." Inevitably the moment was tinged with disappointment for Charlton but not for long. Soon after the game, Charlton clambered down from his seat at Stoke into the United dressing room to congratulate Rooney.

Rooney took 546 games to reach the milestone, while Charlton netted 249 goals over 758 matches across the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

"I have become used to the honor of being the club's all-time top goal scorer ... but it has been fairly obvious for a while now that Wayne Rooney was going to be the one likeliest to break my record," Charlton said.

"And now that day has come, I would be lying to say that I'm not disappointed to have lost the record. However, I can honestly say that I'm delighted for Wayne. He deserves his place in the history books."Breaking records is one thing, now Rooney's priority will be hauling United up the standings. The failure to beat Stoke was even more costly as three of the five teams above them in action today all dropped points: Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City.