There had been a few wobbles at the end of the first half but in the end, United saw off Northampton comfortably with a strong and disciplined second half performance, even though Mourinho had needed to bring some of his big guns off the bench in order to achieve it.
United looked in control in the early stages and opened the scoring following the award of an indirect free kick in the area after a back-pass to the keeper. Although Rooney's initial shot hit the wall, the rebound fell to Carrick on the edge of the area and he placed a delightful shot into the top corner.
Carrick, included for the first time this season, was giving the kind of passing display that has been so sorely missed of late, making his omission from the line-up this season even more curious. He was also providing the kind of shield for the defence that was so absent at Watford on Sunday.
As a result, Northampton took a while to make headway with their long-ball game. However, when Gorre did get free to graze the crossbar with a shot eight minutes before the break, the effort seemed to inspire belief in both the crowd and his team and minutes later they were level. Messy defending from United ended with Blind's trip on Hoskins in the area and Ravell stepped up to score decisively from the spot.
It was, to a large degree, yet another case of self-inflicted damage by United. Mourinho's demeanour clearly revealed his displeasure and, although the Reds started the second half on the front foot, it took only eight minutes for the manager to decide a change was needed and Ibrahimovic and Rashford were introduced.
Shortly after, Herrera struck a superb shot from outside the area that struck the post and, next time he got a sight of goal, the Basque made no mistake. Set up by Rashford's lay-off, his powerful shot gave Smith no chance as United made their second half dominance pay. It was Rashford who extended the lead further in bizarre circumstances. The youngster deserved enormous credit for not giving up on a high looping ball the keeper looked about to clear easily. However, Smith failed to connect and Rashford was on hand to run the ball into the empty net.
In the end the potentially tricky hurdle that presented itself just before half-time was overcome with ease by United. Following the withdrawal of Fosu-Mensah early in the half, Rojo and Young had pushed up the pitch from the full-back positions, minimising the home side's threat on the flanks. In other words, this was a second half in which Mourinho's instructions were carried out to the letter. Hopefully that can begin to happen in the Premier League too. If so, the manager might find it difficult to continue to keep Michael Carrick, who orchestrated the plan perfectly from beginning to end, on the sidelines.
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