Manchester United

Manchester United

Premier League • England

Man Utd report: Strikers find their form as Red Devils hit four again in Melbourne Victory rout

Scott McTominay, Anthony Martial Man Utd v Melbourne Victory (pic from MUFC)

Manchester United continued their fine pre-season form under new boss Erik Ten Hag with a 4-1 win over Melbourne Victory on Friday.

Goals from Scott McTominay, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and a late own goal were enough to see off the A-League side, who had taken an early lead in Australia.

United skipper Harry Maguire was handed his first start of pre-season in a strong XI as ten Hag looked to build on the 4-0 thumping of Liverpool in Bangkok.

However, it was the home side took a shock lead in their very first attack of the game as they sliced the United defence wide open.

Winger Ben Folami broke clear of Luke Shaw and skipped past Victor Lindelof before crossing for Chris Ikonomidis to beat Harry Maguire to the ball and calmly beat Tom Heaton.

But after largely dominating proceedings, the Red Devils hit back with two goals in three minutes to take the lead.

Firstly, Scott McTominay’s strike from 20 yards out took a big deflection off a defender and looped up and over goalkeeper Paul Izzo and into the net.

And United were ahead in first-half stoppage-time when the impressive Jadon Sancho found the overlapping Diogo Dalot, whose cross from the byeline was touched on by Anthony Elanga and found Anthony Martial, who steered his shot into the bottom corner.

Ten Hag made 10 changes at the break, with only Tom Heaton remaining in the side. New boy Tyrell Malacia was handed another run-out, while Marcus Rashford was named skipper.

Zidane Iqbal, who signed a new United contract over the summer, showed up well in the second half before Rashford added a third with 12 minutes to go.

Rashford comes to the party

The England forward raced onto a fine Eric Bailly through-ball before flicking his effort past Izzo.

There was also a nice moment for former United attacker Nani when he came on for Victory in the final few minutes. The four-time Premier League winner was given a nice ovation from all sides of the ground.

But it was all about United as they grabbed four goals in a game for the second time in three days.

Tahith Chong’s dangerous low ball across the face of goal was turned into his own net by Edmond Lupancu to complete a come-from-behind win for the Red Devils.