That’s the benchMarc

DAVID MCDONNELL MARCUS RASHFORD was all smiles after his dramatic late winner underlined his new-found ‘supersub’ status. For the second game running, Rashford came off the bench to score late on, his dramatic winner against West Ham proof he has regained his confidence after a difficult spell.

The England striker was bereft of confidence after going 11 games without a goal and enduring the first real crisis of his playing career. But his goal in a 3-1 win at Brentford was followed by Saturday’s 93rd-minute winner (right), confirming the 24-year-old has regained self-belief. “It obviously does a lot for confidence,” said Rashford. “Winning a game like that, it’s the best feeling in football. It’s the best way to win a game for me, so late on. But the best thing to help your confidence is to win games. When the team is winning games, consecutive games, we can use that as fuel and motivation to go on and win the next few.

“In the Premier League, you never know what’s going to happen, so we just have to focus on ourselves and keep trying to improve. As long as we keep working hard and keep doing our best on the pitch, we should keep picking up results because we have the quality and the mentality to win games.”

United now do not have a Premier League fixture against a top-10 club until their trip to Manchester City on March 5.

Four of Rashford’s five goals this season have come off the bench, with interim boss Ralf Rangnick hailing his impact as a sub.

“We have a lot of wingers and outstanding players in that position,” said Rangnick. “Marcus is one of them. He’s scored twice in consecutive games when he came from the bench but his ambition is to play from the start.

“If he continuously plays at a high level and scores goals, that is the best way back into the team and to play from the beginning.”