MANCHESTER UNITED 4, BURTON ALBION 1
Mobile phone lights briefly lit up Old Trafford with 20 minutes to go but Manchester United youngsters Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial had already lit a fire under Burton Albion’s chances in this entirely one-sided Carabao Cup tie.
Rashford scored an early brace – his fourth in four different competitions – as the Reds eased to victory over Burton Albion without needing to get out of third gear after a third goal by Lingard towards the end of the first half before Anthony Martial got a richly deserved second half goal to bury their visitors.
Jose Mourinho’s Carabao Cup selection had retained only two of the players who started the 4-0 win over Everton on Sunday – Juan Mata and Rashford – but the England youngster grasped the chance to start at centre forward with both hands.
Any hopes of catching a United ‘B’ team out were gone within minutes at Old Trafford during a wholly one sided first half.
After an all-action start, Jamie Allen had a couple of chances to put Burton on the scoresheet but saw one saved by Sergio Romero with the other one a wayward shot from distance.
United scored after just five minutes when Michael Carrick’s pass was diverted into the path of Rashford who fired in past Connor Ripley.
Twelve minutes later Rashford was at it again when he collected Daley Blind’s square pass on the edge of the area and curled a dipping shot in past Ripley for his fifth Reds goal of the season – it was a strike that drew applause from Romelu Lukaku who was sitting on the United bench.
United should have been out of sight by the break after Lingard had a shot blocked by Ripley and Juan Mata had three goes himself but his best chance hit the post but it was luckless Anthony Martial who was denied three times before the break by some profligate finishing despite tormenting the Burton right flank all night.
Lingard finally finished off Burton with a shot that took a wicked deflection off Ben Turner after a great square pass by Anthony Martial in the 36th minute.
Only a Matt Palmer free kick and a smothered chance by Joe Mason caused United any other flutters before half time but it had otherwise been wave after wave of relentless United attacks.
Luke Shaw came on at the break and thought he had extended the lead three minutes after the break but was flagged offside after drilling a long pass from deep midfield past Ripley.
It seemed that it wasn’t to be Martial’s day after he was denied again by Ripley after the break but he finally got on the scoresheet – his fourth goal of the season – after exchanging passes with Rashford during a great build-up to United’s fourth goal of the night on the hour mark.
With a trip to Southampton in mind and the game in the bag, Mourinho gave Mata and Rashford a rest and also gave Joel Pereira some game time with 13 minutes to go as United saw out the rest of the game in cruise control.
The away fans at least had something to cheer at the end but Lloyd Dyer barely celebrated as he grabbed an injury time consolation for Burton – their first goal against United in three games and the first scored against the Reds at Old Trafford this season – after Joe Mason’s header had come off the bar during a goalmouth scramble.