It was in the 86th minute on the occasion of Sir Alex Ferguson’s 75th birthday when Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United completed a turnaround worthy of anything that the Great Scot produced during his days in charge at Old Trafford.
Up in the VIP seating the birthday boy rose to his feet and applauded a result he would have been proud to call his own.
But this is Mourinho’s team – not his – and one which is growing in belief. It’s premature to say a new day is dawning here but to finish 2016 with this kind of high will increase their confidence. It was as if Mourinho’s team were saying goodbye to this year and Old Trafford’s worrying tendency to offer points to teams that might not necessarily deserve them.
This is a Manchester United who have won five Premier League games in a row and a team which finally looks set to jump in with the rest of the top five for a battle for four Champions League places.
There was nothing complex about the equaliser - with Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s knockdown finding Anthony Martial in space – but this stadium saw enough overplaying without any end product under Louis van Gaal. Route one would do just fine.
Moments later and Middlesbrough capitulated. Juan Mata’s cross found Paul Pogba in the box and his header was good enough to beat Victor Valdes a second time. The world’s most expensive footballer will score more glamorous goals than late winners against Middlesbrough at home but it’s all got to start somewhere.
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It had been a bad-tempered, fretful match for Jose Mourinho’s team up until then. Mourinho wrote in his programme notes that he expected Lee Mason and his team of officials to have an easy job at Old Trafford such was the level of friendship between the staff of Manchester United and their Middlesbrough counterparts.
Not only was Mourinho coming up against his former Real Madrid assistant manager Aitor Karanka but it was also revealed that Rui Faria – United’s assistant coach – had a brother-in-law on the Boro bench too.
This was anything but a friendly. The United faithful don’t always sing here and when they do it’s often to complain about the referees.
“Fergie’s right, the refs are sh*te,” goes one refrain and that one got an airing when Mason made the most bizarre decision of the season in disallowing Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s first-half goal.
The United forward met the ball long before being crashed into by his ex-Barcelona team-mate Victor Valdes and even then it was more a foul on the part of the Boro goalkeeper than the striker.
That got United’s backs up and they greeted every marginal decision from there on in with a chorus of lusty boos.
Ibrahimovic was looking to finish 2016 as Europe’s pre-eminent goal scorer. He started the day one behind Lionel Messi’s total of 51 but was thwarted at every turn by Valdes. One second-half effort – after a corner bobbled to the Swede – looked destined for the net but the Spaniard stood strong.
Valdes – who had a short unhappy spell at Old Trafford under Van Gaal - looked like he would be the difference between the teams even if Grant Leadbitter was the first goal scorer.
In the second half, in particular, the 34-year-old produced reflexive stops from Marcus Rashford and Martial. When Valdes couldn’t get to it, the post was there to bail Boro out. A Pogba overhead kick and a Martial strike from distance found the woodwork in the first half as it looked like United wouldn’t get the result their dominance deserved.
But there has been a change in the air here. Their hard work is paying off and the miracle performances of opposition goalkeepers are no longer enough to keep United at bay.
With the echoes of the trophy-laden, thrill-laden Ferguson era in the air, Mourinho dedicated the victory to the birthday boy.
“I told him happy birthday before the match,” the United manager said. “The fans remember him not just for his birthday but also for the kind of performance we had. I think it’s a great tribute.”
2016 was a middling year for Manchester United but now it’s out with the old and in with the new. It's taking some time for Mourinho to instil fortitude into this team but now they have it... with a little bit of their former boss thrown in for good measure.
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