Maguire insists own goal should not have stood

The Reds goalkeeper David De Gea complained he had been impeded by Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin as the Spaniard attempted to deal with Leighton Baines’s corner.

Victor Lindelof inadvertently turned the ball into his own net as the set-piece eluded players in the box but referee Michael Oliver ruled out United’s complaints and VAR also confirmed the goal to put the visitors 1-0 up after 36 minutes.

It left captain Maguire fuming and puzzled.

“Quite simply, and I have watched it back, it is a foul,” Maguire told MUTV.

“It is frustrating. Nowadays, you can’t impede the goalkeepers. When I am going up for a corner, I know I can’t jump up at the goalkeeper and make contact with him, unless I make contact with the ball at the same time.

“You have seen the Everton player charge in and he has made contact with David. He hasn’t made contact with the ball. It should have been a foul.

“I asked David straightaway and he said it’s a foul. Obviously, he is frustrated that he didn’t get a cleaner punch on it but, at the end of the day, he has been impeded without the opposition making contact with the ball.

“People will say it is a contact sport, yes, but the way it is now, you have seen it over the last couple of years, you can’t touch them in the box and normally they get given a foul.”

United were dominant in the match but could only reply to the controversial goal by temporary boss Duncan Ferguson’s side with a leveller by sub Mason Greenwood, with 13 minutes remaining.

“We’re disappointed not to get the three points, which I feel we deserved,” said Harry.

“We dominated the game for large parts. Probably, there were only 10 minutes in the first half when we weren’t on top and they scored from a set-play, which was disappointing.

“In the first 30 minutes of the game, we were way on top. I thought we were going to score the first goal. They scored from their best spell in the game but, from that, we have just dominated the game.

“We have kept pressure on and they haven’t really been in our box apart, from the 90th minute when David made a good save.

“I felt we were going to score every time we went forward. We need to improve. We know that. Our final ball, our final pass and be a bit more clinical.

“We will take the positives. It is disappointing not to close the gap more but we will move on.

“December is a busy month," he added. "We have the Carabao Cup on Wednesday [against Colchester United] and we need to win, we need to go through to the semi-final. Then we have Watford away. They have a new manager and they will make it difficult. It will be a tough game but we have to go there and get three points.”

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