Goal of the Month race hots up

The award, voted for by fans on our Official App, is usually contested by a dozen strikes scored across our four senior teams – Men’s, Women’s, Under-23s and Under-18s – and that’s exactly how many went in across another goal-laden weekend at the club, featuring a quartet of superb victories.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first-team would have taken any effort when trailing to West Ham at half-time on Saturday, after an underwhelming opening 45 minutes at the London Stadium.

Instead, we served up three magnificent goals within a breathless 13 minutes, as yet another away game was turned on its head.

Paul Pogba’s laser-guided missile was arguably the pick of the bunch, yet there was plenty to admire in Mason Greenwood’s turn and finish and the cute dink by Marcus Rashford, who latched on to an undefendable through-ball from Juan Mata.

It was the Reds’ fourth consecutive win in the league, and our other three sides aren’t doing too badly in their respective competitions either.

Casey Stoney’s Women consolidated top spot – and our unbeaten start in the WSL – with a 2-0 win at Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon.

Hayley Ladd’s measured pass left Leah Galton with a simple finish to put the Reds ahead in Walsall, before Ella Toone lobbed Villa keeper Lisa Weiss, yet another strike which would merit inclusion in our end-of-the-month edit.

Earlier that day, our Under-18s beat arch-rivals Liverpool by the odd goal in seven at the Aon Training Complex, to also move to the summit.

After the 4-3 win, Neil Ryan’s side are now averaging three per game in the U18 Premier League and have shown real commitment to positive, attacking football.

United’s second, scored by Charlie McNeill on the counter-attack, was the Reds at our very best – throwing bodies forward and ruthlessly stretching opposition sides, before applying the clinical final touch.

And that could also be said for Facundo Pellistri’s first goal for the club, notched in the Under-23s’ 3-1 home success over Southampton on Friday night.

The Uruguayan stayed cool to wrong-foot the Saints goalkeeper at Leigh – and Anthony Elanga’s opener, thrashed in after his free-kick was blocked, wasn’t bad either.

There are still 16 games to play across the club throughout a busy December, but if the wins keep racking up and the Reds carry on producing this kind of quality in front of goal, our video team are going to have their work cut out when the time comes to draw up the awards shortlist.