In the away end they sang Darren Fletcher’s name. They sang those of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Michael Carrick too, though, so in terms of a popularity contest among those keen on leading Manchester United until the end of the season, it was hard to call a winner.
What would have helped Fletcher – manager for the night here in Lancashire – was a victory. Nothing strengthens a CV quite like Premier League points and for a while Fletcher will have thought he had three.
Poor early on and behind to an Ayden Heaven own goal, Fletcher’s United had recovered impressively to lead after an hour thanks to two terrifically taken goals from the hitherto hopeless United centre forward Benjamin Sesko.