Grimsby Town 2, Manchester United 2 (Grimsby Town win 12-11 on penalties)
Manchester United were humiliated by fourth tier Grimsby Town after an epic Carabao Cup penalty shootout at Blundell Park.
United were lucky to have dragged themselves back to 2-2 after being 2-0 down with 15 minutes to go.
But the Mariners won 12-11 on spot kicks after every player had taken at least one each but Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo missed their spot kicks to hand victory to a side they had not faced in 77 years.
It was the latest in a series on embarrassing setbacks for the United boss Ruben Amorim who could not bring himself to watch the shootout drama unfold.
He therefore failed to notice the five times that hapless goalkeeper Andre Onana got a hand to the ball, mostly without success.
Or the bizarre decision of his new £70m striker Benjamin Sesko to go 10th in the shootout.
But earlier than that, United wouldn’t have even reached the shoot out were it not for another late goal by Harry Maguire whose 89th minute header only postponed the inevitable.
It could have been even more embarrassing had Mbeumo not given United hope with a 75th minute strike set up by Kobbie Marino who looks set to leave the club.
At 2-0 with 15 minutes to go the Mariners possibly should have been 3-0 up but were denied by a tight offside call while they had already had a goal ruled out for handball although one goal that did stand – from ex United youth player Tyrell Warren – had a whiff of handball that wasn’t spotted by the referee.
Andre Onana didn’t cover himself in glory for either of the Grimsby goals that stood.
Onana let Charles Vernam open the scoring at the near post after 22 minutes after United gave the ball away in midfield and their inexperienced defence failed to spot the danger.
Warren’s goal after 30 minutes was sheer opportunism as Onana dropped a looping ball into the box – showing that his weakness on that most English of assists isn’t that hard to scout.
And for a time at the start of the second half a heavy rain shower looked set to wash the Reds away, including an image of hapless boss Amorim playing around with a magnetic tactics board as everything around him looked set to collapse but the call for reinforcements from the bench helped them claw themselves back to parity only to throw it all away right at the death.
Cue pitch invasion at Blundell Park and a set of memories that will last a lifetime for the home fans.
And the ignominy of a child brandishing a cardboard placard declaring that United had been “battered” by their fishy hosts for the travelling fans.