United took a crucial three points away from Craven Cottage to end a run of consecutive 3-0 defeats. They left it late, however, with Bruno Fernandes arrowing home the only goal of the game in added-time after jinking onto his favoured right foot.
Coming into the game off the back of their worst start for 61 years, a win was the only thing that mattered for United on Saturday but Erik ten Hag&aposs side were poor once again. They were more solid defensively but continued to falter going forward.
They were never going to go from being as bad as they have been to being amazing performance-wise, but obviously victory was so necessary, Neville told Sky Sports. I&aposve not seen a coaching staff so relieved for a long time, Erik ten Hag and his coaches were going over to all the players and knew how big that was.
The pressure has been building, and rightly so as the performances have been awful. A bit of respite, nothing more, but it will certainly give them a few days off.
I don&apost think anyone will be conned into thinking everything is fixed because the performance today was still so poor. Theres so many injuries but you cant believe theyve spent 1billion on [the team]. Its incredible when you see the players that are out on the pitch.
Fernandes has suffered plenty of criticism over the past week for his supposed poor attitude in defeats by City and Newcastle, and he showed more signs of petulance at Craven Cottage. But in composing himself to win it, the Portuguese midfielder led by example and Neville did praise the match-winner.
