Captain Fernandes delivers at the death to give Man United much-needed respite
LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 04: Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United celebrates after scoring the team's first goal during the Premier League match between Fulham FC and Manchester United at Craven Cottage on November 04, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
Bruno Fernandes kept his nerve to score the last-minute winner that lifted some of the pressure off Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag.
Back to back 3-0 defeats at the hands of Manchester City in the Premier League and Newcastle in the Carabao Cup had put the Dutchman and his under-achieving stars under the microscope.
In truth Fernandes' winner really only papered over plenty of cracks in another lacklustre performance, against hosts who didn't seem to believe they could add to the losing sequence.
United head to Copenhagen on Wednesday for a Champions League clash but the reality was that, despite the three points, they still seem more suited to the Europa Conference League.
Ten Hag had spent much of Friday outlining how "unacceptable" it had been for Marcus Rashford to have celebrated his birthday just hours after last week's derby loss. This morning's focus was on a fitness test on a leg injury that the England forward failed.
Into the starting line-up came Antony, fit-again Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Alejandro Garnacho - scorer of a late winner in this fixture last season - in a post-City shake-up that could not feature Victor Lindelof because of illness. Raphael Varane, who played in the Champions League before the derby clash, was on the bench watching Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans carry on without him.
Within 40 seconds Maguire was on the deck, floored by a blow to the head by Rodrigo Muniz's shoulder. Varane warmed up but the England man was able to continue.
Significantly so as it was Maguire's involvement in a free-kick move that saw Scott McTominay sweep home from close range that led to be it being chalked off.
Christian Eriksen's delivery found Garnacho at the back post to square for the Scot but Maguire had been one of a trio of offside colleagues and was deemed by a lengthy VAR check that saw referee John Brooks trot to a monitor for confirmation to have stopped Antonee Robinson from intervening.
That proved to be the highlight of a dreadful 45 minutes that featured just one legitimate shot on target, from Fernandes and easily saved by Bernd Leno.
Fulham offered only occasional indications that they might fancy a crack at goal themselves but Alex Iwobi was wasteful with their best opportunity.
Garnacho stung Leno's palms early in the second period and the Fulham keeper soon had to palm over another attempt by the Argentinian.
Fulham passed up two chances to take the lead around the hour mark but saw Andre Onana in the way on both occasions. David de Gea's replacement pulled off a spectacular if not quite convincing diversion of Harry Wilson's arcing long-ranger. And when Palhinha was played in much closer the Fulham man was guilty of thwacking a powerful effort at a height goalkeepers love.
Fernandes forced Leno into a diving save from a long-range free-kick before winning it in stoppage time. All sorts of pinball occurred in the Fulham box before the United captain showed great composure by getting the ball under control, swerving to send a potential challenger in the wrong direction and then firing off a low drive that Leno got a hand to but could not keep out.
Leno 7; Castagne 6, Bassey 6, Ream 7, Robinson 7; Iwobi 6 (Jimenez 89), Palhinha 7; Wilson 7 (Cairney 90), Pereira 6 (De Cordova-Reid 82), Willian 7 (Lukic 75); Muniz 6 (Vinicius 75).
Onana 6; Wan-Bissaka 7, Maguire 6, Evans 6, Dalot 7; Eriksen 6 (Mount 79), McTominay 7; Antony 6 (Pellistri 64, 4), Fernandes 6, Garnacho 7; Hojlund 6 (Martial 79).
John Brookes 6
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