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At the weekend the lasting image was Ryan Yates haring towards the Nottingham Forest supporters in celebration and here another episode at breakneck speed earned victory. This time the subject was Anthony Elanga, who tore up the City Ground turf, eating up 85m in nine seconds, to score the only goal of the game against his former club and maintain their push to qualify for the Champions League. Diogo Dalot sent a header against the woodwork and the substitute Mason Mount went close on his first appearance since December but, incredibly, the wait for Ruben Amorim’s side to earn back-to-back league wins goes on.
“You’re not famous any more,” the Forest supporters sang into six minutes of stoppage time and while that may not quite be true it was another sobering reminder of United’s current state.
Forest were, understandably, in a boisterous mood long before a ball was kicked but when the action began the home support were quick to recognise their latest feat: reaching the FA Cup semi-finals – where they will play Manchester City – for the first time since 1991. “We’re going to Wembley,” was the chant that filled the cool Trent air.
United, of course, are the holders of the competition, in which Forest will face Manchester City. Ryan Yates, who scored the winning penalty at Brighton last weekend on Saturday night, again captained Forest, who were without Callum Hudson-Odoi and Chris Wood through injury.
United registered the first shot, Bruno Fernandes springing an effort on Matz Sels in the Forest goal and the subsequent corner proved the unlikely platform for Elanga’s fifth-minute strike.
Yates cleared a recycled Fernandes cross with a booming header and the ball looped over the referee, Jarred Gillett, and bounced about 10 yards outside the Forest area. Elanga stormed on to the ball, controlling it with his studs and then advanced at speed, using both feet to keep the ball close. He flew past halfway with Patrick Dorgu and Alejandro Garnacho in pursuit.
Garnacho slid in to snatch possession but ended up on his backside and Dorgu struggled to stay on his tail. Noussair Mazraoui was torn between pressuring Elanga and backpedalling. The run of Morgan Gibbs-White, to Elanga’s left, helped frazzle United. By the time Dorgu went to ground it was too late as Elanga drove into the widening gap between Mazraoui and Dorgu and sent a low left-foot shot into the corner.
Elanga started his run inside the Forest box, quickly reading the fallout of Yates’s headed clearance, but took just two touches inside his half before motoring upfield. The former United forward kept his celebration low-key, pointing to his face apologetically.
Fernandes, the United captain, glanced a header at Sels from a Diogo Dalot cross a couple of minutes later and Casemiro sent his header off-target from another corner.
Dalot came closest to equalising for United after a fairly tepid first-half display, his header from Fernandes’s corner midway through the first half spinning on to the crossbar.
Sels, an inspired signing for Nuno Espírito Santo’s side, dealt with the leftovers. Garnacho caught Yates on the top of his boot with a poor challenge that went unpunished but Elanga was enjoying himself, juggling the ball over Fernandes’s head in one breath and hurdling a Casemiro challenge in another.
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United again appeared hopeful of Fernandes, who had scored three goals and laid on another three in his previous four league appearances, being their launchpad for a comeback. Rasmus Højlund arrived at half-time in place of Manuel Ugarte and Christian Eriksen replaced Casemiro approaching the hour.
It was all a bit tit for tat. Casemiro planted an early second-half header at Sels and up the other end Yates tested André Onana but was offside. Gibbs-White feinted and successfully fooled Fernandes to carve some space and an angle but he shanked his shot into the Trent End. Garnacho got his bearings wrong with another effort from the edge of the Forest box.
Forest were typically stout in defence. Neco Williams made a superb block to thwart Garnacho late on. But it was Yates, who joined the club aged eight and is one of select group of players to have scored in all the five divisions of the pyramid, who made a possibly match-winning intervention.
Garnacho effortlessly took down Fernandes’s raking diagonal pass and set about bamboozling Yates, stepping over the ball and then jinking inside. Job done, then? Garnacho took aim but Yates flung himself at the Argentina forward’s shot, blocking the ball with his right boot. Murillo then did the same with a goalline clearance to prevent Harry Maguire equalising with almost the final kick.
No wonder Yates celebrated with a fist pump towards the Brian Clough Stand. This was Forest’s first league double over United since those days under Clough, in 1991-92.
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