Jesse Lingard has claimed that he is ‘over the moon’ after he scored the winning goal for Manchester United against West Ham in the Premier League, as he told Sky Sports on Super Sunday.
Manchester United recorded a drama-filled 2-1 win against West Ham at the London Stadium, with Mark Noble seeing his spot-kick saved in stoppage-time, before that moment of magic from Lingard.
When the footballing scripts were written before this match, someone, somewhere perhaps noted down that Lingard coming off the bench for Man United and scoring against his old club was going to happen.
The England international did just that by finding the back of the net with a typical and stunning curling effort that the home team were used to seeing last season – the only difference here is that they hated seeing it today.
Perhaps the Hammers faithful thought the scripts were also written for Noble to come off the bench to score a stoppage-time penalty, in what is his final season in Claret and Blue colours.
But it wasn’t meant to be, as Lingard was asked how he felt when he scored and he also shared his feelings on the reception he got from the West Ham fans when he came onto the pitch.
“Over the moon,” said Lingard. “I got a brilliant reception when I came on. I had a good time at West Ham.
“But I have to move on with Manchester United and do what’s best for Manchester United. I have been working hard to overcome this week, it wasn’t easy, but to get a goal was brilliant.”
In the end, it was a tale of two substations from the current Manchester United manager and the former Old Trafford boss.
During his time at West Ham, Moyes has got a lot of things right, but this one was a mistake, especially given that Noble had no time to warm-up before taking his kick, was one call he got badly wrong.
Gareth Southgate did just that with Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford during the Euros this summer – and the duo both failed to convert their penalties in the final.
Perhaps there is an unwritten rule where bringing on a player just to take a penalty is a big no-no, just like making a substitution when your team is defending a set-piece is another unwritten rule.
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