McTominay's late double saves Man Utd from Brentford loss
Scott McTominay scored twice in stoppage time to ease Manchester United's crisis with a badly-needed 2-1 win over Brentford on Saturday.
The Bees looked set to snap their own seven-game winless streak after Mathias Jensen opened the scoring with the aid of some more poor goalkeeping by Andre Onana.
United were staring a third home defeat in eight days in the face until substitute McTominay proved the unlikely hero. The Scotland midfielder has been in fine goalscoring form at international level, but was only introduced by Erik ten Hag three minutes from time.
McTominay found the net three times, but after his first effort was ruled out for offside, he struck twice in six minutes of added time to ease the pressure on his manager. Victory lifts United up to ninth and within four points of the top four.
Ten Hag's task was not helped by a mounting injury list in defence with Raphael Varane's absence adding to the unavailable Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Tyrell Malacia and Sergio Reguilon.
The out-of-favour Harry Maguire was paired alongside 35-year-old Jonny Evans in central defence as a result. But it was United's under-fire goalkeeper who was the culprit for the opening goal.
Casemiro was also at fault as he gave away possession cheaply to Yoane Wissa, who surged into the United box. Victor Lindelof's attempted clearance came back off Wissa and into the path of Jensen.