report: Late Wayne Rooney penalty spares Louis van Gaal's blushes

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report: Late Wayne Rooney penalty spares Louis van Gaal's blushes

The magic of the FA Cup was on display at Manchester United but it was the kind of magic practised by Tommy Cooper; fumbling, inept and embarrassing. Old Trafford was spared its seventh goalless draw of the season in the six minutes of stoppage time added by the referee, Jonathan Moss, which – when the board was held up – seemed like a cruel and unusual punishment.

Memphis Depay, who had been far and away United’s most aggressive player, skipped into the box and when Dean Hammond slid into make the challenge there was contact, which the young Dutchman, as he was entitled to do, made the most of. Wayne Rooney buried the penalty beneath the Stretford End and everyone walked off to the strains of “Glory, Glory Man United”, which now seems a deeply subversive song.

For most of the tie Sheffield United had massed their players behind the ball and challenged the home side to break them down. Mostly, they failed absolutely and as they lumbered forward it would have taken a combination of Paul Daniels, Gandalf and Derren Brown to have brought this rain-sodden game to life.

With the game 66 minutes old, Manchester United did something. Memphis Depay unleashed a shot that just past George Long’s post that smashed against the advertising panels at the Stretford End.

It was the first time that the home side had created anything of note and a vast, rolling cheer, laced with sarcasm, rolled around the stadium.

These two sides last met in the FA Cup was precisely 21 years ago, in a match that is remembered for Eric Cantona’s fabulous 30-yard chip and the fact that it was the day Manchester United signed Andy Cole – before the tie Alex Ferguson had taken Keith Gillespie into the toilets at Bramall Lane to tell him that he would be the makeweight in the deal.

Sheffield United’s defence, very well marshalled by their captain, Jay McEverley, stood up even better to a Manchester United side that has failed to score a first-half goal at Old Trafford since they played Wolfsburg in September, since when three-quarters of a million people have come through the turnstiles. Not only did United not score in the first-half, they did not have a shot on target.

Standing beside the pitch, commentating for BT Sport, Paul Scholes asked why anybody was remotely surprised by that statistic.