Newport County 2

Man Utd 4

Bristol City or Notts Forest away will be our next opponents in the FA Cup as we laboured past Newport County in a match which United should have won comfortably.

United took a two goal lead early on when first Bruno converted the pass from Antony who mysteriously found himself on the left (Antony’s first assist this season by the way) and then Mainoo’s shot beat the Newport keeper this right after good work by Dalot.

2-0 up inside the first 20 minutes, easy peasy, right? Not with this United side! 10 minutes before HT Newport pulled one back. Ok, it was a great shot, which also had a deflection. Stercus accidit.

Fast forward to just 2 minutes after the break and it was 2-2. Collective dreaming is the best way to describe our team as they went out for the second half. Dalot went missing on the right side and from the cross, Varane was caught napping. Surely we can’t lose to Newport, I kept saying to myself. I had doubts, I have to confess, also because we continue to struggle tremendously to create goal opportunities – even against Newport!

Eventually we scored a couple more goals to seal it off. Antony got a goal after the hard work was done by the returning Shaw. A good day at the office for Antony – a goal and an assist in a single match are a rarity for him!!

Hojlund got the 4th after a scramble in the box. I keep hoping that the boy will find some form and starts banging in the goals with some regularity. Not convinced though.

It was good to see Shaw and Casemiro back. Martinez nearly played all 90min and Maguire came on as a sub. Otherwise, nothing to get excited about. So, so, so much room for improvement!

West Ham go to OT next weekend…NUMQUAM MORIBIMUR!