The Bees destroy Man U 3-1 at the Gtech

Could we play as badly as we did at Fulham? Would the manager make the same mistake by playing five at the back? A resounding "NO" to both of these. A very positive team selection with three forwards but that did mean there was no recognised forward on the bench (Nelson was unavailable with a hamstring injury). We started brightly and in the 8th minute a great long ball from Henderson sees Thiago make a bending run and appears to receive the ball yards offside, but he steams forward and smashes an amazing left-footed half volley past the Man U keeper into the net. VAR confirms he was just onside and the goal stands. Then it was all Bees with Kayode causing havoc with his long throws. Then we were denied two certain goals by their keeper acrobatically kept out headers from van den Berg and Collins in quick succession. We double our lead in the 20th minute. Another long ball to Schade on the left wing sees him get to the byline and and cross, the keeper can only push the ball out to Thiago who gets his and our second. Then against the run of play, Man U get a goal back. A cross from the left sees Kelleher flap at it under pressure from former Bee Mbeumo (who was given a very good reception from the home fans). United had three chances to stick it into the net, the first two saved by Kelleher but he could do nothing with the third attempt and it is 2-1. Then Man U start to get more into the game but we hold out until half time. At the break I was thinking that the only way Kelleher could redem himself would be to save a penalty. The second half was rather uninspiring with both sides not creating any clear cut chances, except for great ball from Damsgaard to Schade who held off his defender and laid it back to Ouattara but his effort was saved. Then a cross from the right sees Collins slightly pull back Mebumo in the area so he couldn't get his shot away. Collins gets booked and VAR eventually agrees with the ref's decision to give penalty. Before it can be taken we make two subs thus delaying the pen nearly 5 mins. Then Kelleher does redeem his first half mistake that led to their goal by diving low down to his left to push away Fernandez's penalty. In the 5th minute of added on time, as Man U are pushing forward to get an equaliser, some neat passing in our half eventually releases Jensen and he smashes an unstoppable shot past their keeper to make it 3-1 and that is how the game finishes. A well-deserved three points.