McTominay hits extra-time winner to join last eight
Manchester Utd 1 West Ham Utd 0
SCOTT McTOMINAY fired Manchester United into the FA Cup quarter-finals as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men edged past West Ham in extra time.
The Red Devils reached the final four last season – one of four successive semi-final cup competition exits – and progressed from a tough fifthround clash last night.
Former United manager David Moyes’ West Ham side made life difficult on a bitterly cold night at Old Trafford, where substitute McTominay struck home Marcus Rashford’s lovely 97th-minute lay-off to seal a 1-0 extra-time win.
Solskjaer will be relieved his team made it through to the last eight on a night in which Lukasz Fabianski tipped a deflected Victor Lindelof header onto the post in a first half that they edged.
West Ham had already been hit by an injury to Angelo Ogbonna at that point and his replacement Issa Diop became the first concussion substitute in English football when withdrawn at half-time.
Andriy Yarmolenko was then forced off in a goalless second half as the match went to extra time, with McTominay firing in his seventh goal of the season to seal progress.
United manager Solskjaer admitted he was concerned when his team did not finish off the tie.
“When it’s only 1-0 and we are wasteful, anything can happen to us – we knew that from the last game,” Solskjaer told BBC Sport.
“I think we got about 15 to 17 shots in the end but we need to be more clinical. We should’ve finished the game off earlier and finished in 90 minutes but sometimes it doesn’t happen.
“It’s just about finishing the game off, but we are through. We are in the hat and that’s what we wanted.”
Maguire felt United had produced the required response from seeing Everton fight back to draw 3-3 in their last league game.
He said: “It shows a great spirit and mentality to come back here and perform, get our heads back up.
“We know it is a long season, there are games every three days. It is the best thing when you are disappointed to have a game in a few days’ time.
“Tonight was perfect, the games come so soon and the lads put on a good performance, it is important to go through.”