UNITED PHIL THEIR BOOTS

United defied the storm around the club with a goalfest as Dalot, Lingard, even Phil Jones ended Tranmere’s giantkilling dreams

EVEN Diogo Dalot scored. Even Phil Jones scored. Blimey, even Jesse Lingard scored.

This was that sort of glaring mis-match and anyone wanting to read a jot of significance into it would be playing a dangerous game.

This is modern-day Manchester United, after all.

A team and a club waiting for the next setback to come around the corner.

But they needed this. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer needed this, captain Harry Maguire, whose early beauty from range prompted the tide of strikes that overwhelmed Tranmere and traumatised keeper Scott Davies, needed this. And Ed

Woodward, absent in person but remembered loudly and less than fondly in name by United supporters, needed this.

At least the dirt and sand of Prenton Park smoothed over a few issues for a few moments.

Again, attaching any wider importance to a walkover against a side that performed well below their League One standard is clearly ill-advised.

But at first glance of the surface, and after a Rovers start that briefly rattled Jones and Maguire, this looked a task that could be problematic.

United completed it with the minimum of fuss and maximum clinical, attacking expertise. Most of their goals were cleanly executed, none more so than the opener.

The skipper, accused of shrinking in that defeat to Burnley at Old Trafford, set the tone, finishing a few strides forward with a ferocious hit for his United first.

For Davies in the Tranmere goal, that was to become the grim routine. Dalot was next, cutting in from the right and completing a finish he had been keeping under wraps in his United career.

Then it was Lingard’s turn, with his strike meaning he has two this season – one against

Astana, one against Tranmere Rovers. Unfortunately, he cannot play them every week.

And on a day of rare sightings, up popped Jones with United’s fourth. Actually, there was a familiarity about Jones’ overall performance – a mud-caked, yellow-carded, body-slamming contribution – with the unfamiliarity coming when he headed in Andreas Pereira’s corner.

If Davies was disillusioned, it got worse when the fifth went in for Anthony Martial, courtesy of a chunky deflection.

With the challenge of trying to overturn a two-goal deficit in the Carabao Cup semi-final, second leg against Manchester City looming, Solskjaer and his side pretty much declared at that, the only scoresheet addition a Mason Greenwood penalty after Tahiti Chong had been brought down by the dazed Davies. Lingard, clearly on a hot streak, seemed to fancy it, along with Pereira.

Anyhow, presumably after a signal from Solskjaer, the matter was swiftly settled by Maguire and Greenwood scored. That was pretty much Maguire’s last meaningful act but he had done enough in just over an hour to again suggest captaincy of this club suits him.

Leaders will be needed at the Etihad on Wednesday, against Wolves on Saturday and throughout the rest of the season if there is to be any respite in the pressure on Solskjaer and Woodward.

Maguire and United triumphed on the mud but the going is likely to be heavy for some time yet.