conditional format date

I require a date field in a list screen to be red if it is the current date. I have applied the follwing custom code on the visual editor and this works great..

$curd = date("Y-m-d",strtotime(now()));

if ($value ==$curd)

{

$value = "<font color=red>".$value."</font>";

$value = "<strong>".$value."</font>";
}

However this changed the format of the field to 2008-05-01 sytle where as all my other dates are 25/02/2008 style.
I have tried everything I can think of - please can someone help to show the field in the same 25/02/2008 format as all the others.
Many thanks
Gareth