Aaron Wan-Bissaka's horizontal assist for Christian Eriksen's opener against Burnley marked the right-back's first competitive start of the season for Manchester United.
The defender's only previous outing under Erik ten Hag came as an 86th-minute substitute in the 2-1 win over Liverpool at Old Trafford, back in August.
After struggles with illness and injury, the 25-year-old was able to get playing time during our two friendlies in Spain and secured a spot in the XI for the Carabao Cup fourth-round tie on Wednesday night, with Diogo Dalot unavailable.
It presented the sort of opportunity that Wan-Bissaka relished, and his excellent, improvised volley, applied to Bruno Fernandes's searching pass, laid on the breakthrough goal for Eriksen.
With Marcus Rashford's solo strike clinching a safe passage into this evening's quarter-final draw, and a clean sheet maintained, this was a good night's work for Aaron, whose future was brought up in the press conference, after the game.
“He has a future,
“ spelled out Ten Hag. ”
He has had some good years at Man United but, from the start of this season he has had a lot of illnesses and injuries. So, from the restart on, he is fit, so he could train with the team and you see him progressing.
“His fitness levels are getting better. His performance levels are getting better and I am really happy today with his performance. And he gave an assist and, especially, the way he gave the assist [I was happy with].
”About his movement, the timing and a great pass from Bruno. But the assist was great, so I am happy with his performance. He did good.”
Rashford was also keen to explain what he feels Wan-Bissaka needs, during his post-match interview with MUTV's Stewart Gardner.
“He's a massively important player,”
stated the forward. “We all know about his defensive qualities and, for me, he just needs confidence to be pushed to go forward because, when he goes forward, he can create goalscoring opportunities for us.
”Today, he had no right to get that ball but he got there anyway and it was a good ball across. It looks like a simple goal in the end but it isn't. It's the movement and the timing from all three players really and Christian arriving late in the box, getting a tap-in. Yeah, it was a great goal and 'Azza' played a massive part.“