Luton 0 Man Utd 3: Dean Henderson enjoys dream debut as Mata, Greenwood and Rashford score
DEAN HENDERSON had waited nine years for this moment.
After progressing through the youth ranks at United, Henderson was dispatched out on loan spells to Stockport, Grimsby, Shrewsbury and Sheffield United before finally being handed a first-team debut.
So finally, he was given his debut but it looked as though he would not have a single save to make.
Then with 10 minutes left – and United struggling against Luton – Henderson proved why he could well replace David de Gea.
He is certainly convinced that De Gea will soon be toast.
MAN UTD NEWS LIVE: Click here for the latest United news
Luton’s Tom Lockyer will have thought his effort was going to creep in at the near post but Henderson somehow managed to claw the ball away and from the rebound, the same Luton player saw his effort blocked by Eric Bailly.
But it was that moment of class which avoided Luton getting a deserved leveller and sending the tie into penalties. Until then, they were hanging on to Juan Mata’s penalty before subs Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood sealed the win with decent strikes at the end.
But in terms of Henderson’s one moment of class, at least Ole Gunnar Solskjaer learned one thing from this game as there was precious little else to analyse from his second XI.
No-one really took their chances to stake a place in the starting line-up for Saturday’s trip to Brighton. Equally, United will travel to either Preston or Brighton in the next round.
Yet while United’s defence was solid enough, there was very little spark going forward and Odion Ighalo looked completely isolated up front and rarely threatened.
Most read in Football
Jesse Lingard showed a few flashes of skill along with Donny van de Beek but it was nothing special and it was another forgettable performance from Solskjaer’s team.
This was not even Luton’s biggest game of the week as they made nine changes from Saturday as United was not even their biggest match of the week.
In a game the club’s fans have been waiting 14 years for, Luton make the short trip to Vicarage Road on Saturday for their battle against hated rivals Watford
Since that last meeting, a 1-1 draw in April 2006, Luton have tumbled out of the Football League, bounced back again through the divisions and now find themselves third in the Championship after a bright start.
Former boss Alex Ferguson always moaned about coming here to this corner of Bedfordshire and it was United’s first match at Kenilworth Road in 28 years.
Skipper Harry Maguire was the only survivor of the team while United’s only signing of a frustrating summer, £40million midfielder Van de Beek, was making his full debut.
We only saw flashes of what he is capable of and one of those moments came early on when he showed impressive awareness by allowing Lingard’s cross through his legs for Mata to pounce, but his half-decent strike was saved by James Shea.
With his United job prospects not looking particularly bright, this was a chance for Lingard to put himself in the shop window, albeit against a team outside the Premier League.
He looked sharp enough and combined well with Van de Beek although you would have still expected United to cause a few more problems in the first half.
Luton had worked incredibly hard defensively and then they ruined it all with a needless challenge from George Moncur on Brandon Williams just before half-time.
There was not a massive amount of contact from the son of former West Ham midfielder John Moncur, but it was a silly challenge even if Williams was looking in the direction of the referee for a foul before even hitting the ground.
Mata sent Luton’s keeper the wrong way with a confidently-taken penalty and is now just one strike away from becoming the 22nd player in United’s history to reach a half century of goals.
Playing against his former club, Ryan Tunnicliffe denied the visitors a second with a goal-line block to deny Lingard while Nemanja Matic and Van de Beek had shots saved by Shea.
Henderson made that crucial save and at the end, substitute Rashford delivered a polished finish and fellow sub Greenwood stroked the ball into the far corner for 3-0.