Late Diallo hat-trick saves United after dismal display

Fergie Time may require a new name. Increasingly, it is Amad hour, the period when Manchester United’s new specialist in late drama wreaks havoc.

- RICHARD JOLLY

The script is becoming increasingly familiar. Amad Diallo is the rookie who turns rescuer, time and again, the new expert in escapology. He has determined bigger games than this but, even by his standards, a 12-minute hat-trick was quite something. A figure from the fringes has been transformed into United’s new talisman.

And their joy should be married with relief. So many United games in the last dozen years have been described as a new low that it can’t always be correct. This threatened to be the lowest of all. With 10 minutes of normal time remaining, United were headed for a fourth consecutive top-flight home defeat, a fate they have not suffered since 1930, on course to lose to a team who risk taking Derby County’s infamous, unwanted record for the fewest points in a Premier League season.

Instead, ultimate embarrassment was averted. Southampton departed defeated 3-1, overwhelmed by the slight figure who started the night as a wing-back and ended it with the match ball. “Maybe one of the best weeks of my life,” said Amad, who had signed a new contract seven days earlier. Only Wayne Rooney has scored a Premier League hat-trick for United at a younger age and when, surreally, it seemed as if they were being dragged into a relegation battle, Amad instead elevated them to the dizzy heights of 12th place.