Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford taps in last-gasp winner at Hull
After almost 20 years at Old Trafford as player, coach and, finally, Sir Alex Ferguson’s assistant, Mike Phelan knows all about Manchester United’s knack of scoring last-gasp goals.

Hull City’s caretaker manager must have celebrated countless such winners but he could certainly have done without Marcus Rashford’s late clincher. The 18-year-old’s tap-in eluded Eldin Jakupovic after a hitherto underwhelming Wayne Rooney had evaded Ahmed Elmohamady to centre.

With a single, decisive kick from a substitute who had been dropped by England earlier in the week, a previously superbly defiant Hull – with Curtis Davies imperious in central defence – were brought back to earth. Phelan had always said that expecting his 14 fit senior professionals to defeat United’s £200m worth of talent might be “delusional” but, when David Meyler very nearly scored an 89th-minute effort of his own Hull nearly did precisely that.

Considering the anchoring element of his 4-2-3-1 formation stand a collective 12ft 7in – Marouane Fellaini is 6ft 4in and Paul Pogba an inch shorter – Hull’s rather more averagely built central midfielder, Sam Clucas, looked a little vertically challenged.

No matter: ably supported by Tom Huddlestone (no midget himself) and Meyler, he held his own surprisingly well with some assured, composed passing. There were moments when Clucas was outmuscled by the more athletic Pogba but generally he proved a big reason why United struggled to trouble Eldin Jakupovic during the first half. Significantly Pogba was never able to dominate play.

Apart from watching a header from Zlatan Ibrahimovic fly fractionally over his bar following the striker’s impressive connection with Anthony Martial’s cross, Jakupovic had relatively little to do in Hull’s goal.

Neither did David de Gea but that seemed little consolation to Mourinho as he paced his technical area, shaking his head. With his hands tucked deep into the pockets of the overcoat he had sensibly worn on an extremely damp, Humberside evening, United manager’s cut an increasingly fractious figure.

The rain was lashing down when, in the wake of Fellaini being booked for a foul on Adama Diomandé, Robert Snodgrass stepped forward to hit a free-kick from almost 30 yards. As it curled in, De Gea remained motionless and must have been mighty relieved to see it brush the outside of a post.

Shortly afterwards, Huddlestone’s wonderful long pass sparked a home counterattack that concluded with Andrew Robertson crossing and Luke Shaw intercepting quite brilliantly as Snodgrass prepared to pounce at the far post. Unfortunately the winger ended up colliding with the upright and required lengthy treatment before resuming.

Mourinho must have hoped he might not be able to continue as Snodgrass was a big reason why Shaw was not able to attack in his customary fashion from left-back. With Antonio Valencia, the visiting right-back, similarly stifled things were proving rather less straightforward than United may have anticipated.

When Juan Mata dodged Robertson to deliver a cross Jakupovic could only parry, the hitherto anonymous Rooney looked set to score from six yards. Instead Davies – magnificent in central defence – somehow chested the ball off the line.

Rooney was left to, forlornly, appeal for what would have been an extremely harsh handball penalty against the defender on what was proving a trying match for the England captain. With Meyler and co frequently cramping his style and leaving him precious little room for manoeuvre, Rooney often had nowhere to turn.

Although United had plenty of possession and Hull’s attacking game could not exactly be described as ambitious, Phelan must have been delighted by the way his team were containing their guests with Davies’s minding of Ibrahimovic emblematic of this collective smothering. Even better, they did, albeit sporadically, menace on the counterattack and Abel Hernández had De Gea diving to save a dangerous header.

The second half had barely begun before Snodgrass, completely unchallenged, collapsed near the dugout, his leg having apparently giving way under him. Considering he only returned from 16 months out with a serious knee injury last spring this was not a happy sight. Having manipulated his knee, Hull’s physiotherapist helped him to his feet but the consoling arm he put around the winger, who was immediately replaced Shaun Maloney, could be construed as another bad sign.

Without Snodgrass to worry them – and with Fellaini arguably lucky not to have received a second booking for what looked suspiciously like a clearcut case of defiance – United began to settle.

Yet still Jakupovic, who earlier comfortably gathered a disappointing Rooney header, remained untroubled. By half-time the news had filtered through Cardiff had accepted Hull’s £5 bid for their goalkeeper, David Marshall but Phelan’s current No1 should feel hard done by is he was to be dropped.

Recognising that things were not quite right, Mourinho replaced Martial with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and the newcomer’s passing immediately helped bring the best out of Ibrahimovic. That said United’s lone striker had already done more than most to raise the tone, one glorious volleyed backheel flick which found Mata offside lingering in the memory.

Still though a goal stubbornly refused to materialise. Mata was replaced by Rashford, although some travelling fans might rather have seen Rooney taken off. Shortly afterwards a wonderful save from Jakupovic denied the teenager, whose shot had gone through Jake Livemore’s legs.

Now forced ever deeper by Rashford’s electric pace, Hull nearly astonished everyone by scoring on a rare break. When Huddlestone’s long-range shot took a hefty deflection off Eric Bailly – largely unruffled alongside the ever intelligent Daley Blind – the ball flashed tantalisingly off target with De Gea wrong-footed.

Hull’s hopes of extending their 100% start to the season flickered when Meyler’s shot proved a narrow miss but then Rashford struck two minutes into injury time.
What is a short summary of the above article?
The Manchester United teenager, who was dropped by England earlier in the week, came off the bench to score the only goal at Hull City in injury time