McTominay stars in Utd’s big show

SCOTT McTominay starred as Manchester United ended 2021 with a much-needed 3-1 win against a depleted Burnley at Old Trafford last night.

Having gone top of the Premier League with victory at Turf Moor in January, talk of a title challenge had turned to the need to kickstart their Champions League qualification push by the end of a topsy-turvy year.

There remains plenty of work for Ralf Rangnick to do, but last night’s 3-1 win against an understrength Burnley continued the unbeaten start to his interim stint and sent the side up to sixth heading into the new year.

United would have ended the calendar year outside the top six for the first time since 1989/90 had they not won at Old Trafford, but academy graduate McTominay seemed hell-bent on getting them back to winning ways.

The Scotland international delighted compatriot Sir Alex Ferguson on the eve of his 80th birthday by scoring a fine opener from the edge of the box in the eighth minute. A low Jadon Sancho shot deflected in off Burnley captain Ben Mee in 27 minutes to make it 2-0 and Cristiano Ronaldo made it 3-0 in 35 minutes, turning home after McTominay’s strike was superbly tipped on to a post by Wayne Hennessey.

The back-up goalkeeper impressed, with Nick Pope among several positive Covid19 cases in the Burnley camp, as did Aaron Lennon as he capped a fine display with a goal for Burnley in 38 minutes.

A lively first half made way for a flat second period as United professionally saw out victory – a welcome end to a challenging year at Old Trafford.

Asked if the performance had been the best of the season to date, McTominay said: “Yes, probably first half as a team, I would say so.

“I feel like we were still a little bit flat second half, for whatever reason, I don’t know. We need to get that for a full 90 minutes, which I don’t think we’ve had many times this year.

“We’re learning, adapting. The game against Newcastle was difficult, so we have to bounce back from something like that.

“The manager said we set a record for the most amount of turnovers in the league for a long time.

“So that message was clear, keep the ball better, forward passes more and all the rest that the manager wants.”

Scott McTominay opens the scoring from the edge of the area after just eight minutes of play against Burnley at Old Trafford last night.