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FINALLY Manchester United had a reason to smile again about technology … even if it left Slaven Bilic with a face of thunder.
A cyberattack had breached United’s computer system before the start had caused panic inside Old Trafford.
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Last night, Baggies boss Bilic was the only one to feel decidedly cut off, after two calls from the VAR ruined his team’s dreams of a clash and handed United victory.
First referee David Coote overturned his own penalty penalty in the 46th minute after Bruno Fernandes sent Conor Gallagher into the box after a review from the touchline.
And seven minutes later, Fernandes put United in the lead with a penalty shot that he resumed after Sam Johnstone moved off his line and saved the midfielder’s first attempt.
Decisions, by the way, both courtesy of a man who really should have been in action for Liverpool’s game against Leicester tonight.
Coote, however, withdrew because he had been the VAR officer for THAT Jordan Pickford challenge on Virgil van Dijk that ended Kop’s star season.
How West Brom must have wished he had been kept on duty in Merseyside instead of Manchester.
Mind you, given that United were having such tough weather with their first home win of the season, it was probably the only way they would have managed it.
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On paper, it shouldn’t have been a contest. But on paper, United seem like a decent team. Reality is something else.
The reality is what the table told you … 14 against 18. A competition between a side desperately hoping to stay on top and another who will be lucky enough to get close to the top four.
Certainly if this is something to go through. And if it hadn’t been for that dubious VAR decision in favor of United, it could have been even worse for them.
They started moderately and gradually got worse. West Brom held on there and then threatened to smash and grab.
By right, they should have managed it too. If the rules weren’t so stupid these days, there would have been no discussion.
Less than 60 seconds after the break and Gallagher had fallen under the clumsy challenge of Fernandes.
A kick as clear as you will see. Or at least that’s how it seemed: we should already know that there is nothing left.
When referee Coote ran to check, they probably feared the worst, and it is true that the penalty was rejected … and West Brom’s dreams were with him.
No matter how many times you watched the replay, how forensic the study was, you could never say that the original decision was an obvious mistake.
And isn’t that the only way officials are supposed to change their decision? Or maybe we’ve missed something else along the way.
It is true that Fernandes did make the slightest touch of the ball. But it did a much heavier one on Gallagher’s shin.
Anywhere else on the field and you’re talking about a free kick. One of those “he got there first, but the tracking got the man” incidents.
Still, even then it might not have mattered much if David de Gea hadn’t produced a fantastic block to deny Conor Townsend up close soon after.
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When that happened, you felt what would come next. Although perhaps not in the way it came about.
For seven minutes after the penalty kick at one end, United went ahead thanks to one of their own at the other. Or two, actually, to be strictly exact.
Nemanja Matic’s ball in the box hit Darnell Furlong in the hand, and since it was away from his body, this time there was no need to check.
Fernandes came up with a jump, a step … and an impressive low save from Sam Johnstone, who dived low to his left.
However, the Baggies’ keeper had drifted slightly off his line before doing so, and Coote got the message in his ear: a replay.
It may have been cruel luck for the man who spent eight years at Old Trafford without playing a game for United, but he was spot on.
And in the second lap, Fernandes played straight ahead with his run up and into the corner with delivery, and the Bags were finally broken.
It would have been a second time if Johnstone, who had a night he will never forget, capped off a night of impressive saves with a staggering to deny Rashford.
That followed a not-too-short early save in impressive stakes to avoid an early effort by Antony Martial and another to reject a Harry Maguire piledriver.
Not that it was all one-way after United went ahead. Anything less, in fact, and Callum Robinson came within a coat of paint from leveling it when his curling iron rattled the bar.
Then again, given West Brom’s luck last night, it was never going to happen.
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