For a while on a dirty night in Old Trafford, it started to feel as if the next big job at Manchester United might even be Ruben Amorim himself.
His team followed the third of the soil Ipswich Town, the gap that United separated from the relegation zone threatened to fall to 10 points, and the worst nightmare of Sir Jim Ratcliffe became a reality.
After a week dominated by grim news about more redundancies aimed at saving money to pump into the first team, there was more proof of how far United has fallen.
No matter how bad things are at this club, it seems that they can always trust Bruno Fernandes. The Portuguese playmaker may not be everyone's cup of tea, but because of the wind and rain here he appeared to dig united from another mess.
Three goals from Set-Pieces from Fernandes meant that he was remarkably involved in the last six scored by his team.
This is united, it was of course not that easy. After he contributed to his team that a disastrous opening goal admitted, new signing Patrick Dorgu was sent away in the 43rd minute for a pathogenic challenge on Omari Hutchinson.
After taking the lead, the lost and then led again, Amorim's side deserves the honor of seeing the second half comfortably with 10 men.
“All things in the game were against us and we fought through it and clearly deserved the three points,” said United's head coach.
Dorgu's first mistake came in the fourth minute when he and Jaden Philogene the long ball of Jacob Greaves chased Deep.
Who was more the fault of what happened afterwards, Dorgu or Andre Onana? Hard to say other than it was a terrible mix. Onana ran from his line, but Dorgu did not seem to see him when he touched the ball past his goalkeeper, causing Philogene to walk the ball in an empty net.
Amorim was looking in the pouring rain with a look of disbelief. The optimism of the second minute goal of Marcus Rashford in his first game against Ipswich in Portman Road in November must have felt like a distant memory.
“Everyone when they looked at the first goal, thought” here we again, “he said afterwards.
Just as they did in Goodison Park on Saturday, United collected and again it was the set piece bravery of Fernandes who succeeded.
The United Captain was given the opportunity to knock in a free kick from the left in the 22nd minute when Jens Cajust Alejandro Garnacho polluted. It was a cross that invited a finish, but it came from the Ipswich captain Sam Morsy and flew into the net.
Four minutes later United was paramount. This time Fernandes sent over a corner and Alex Palmer saved from Harry Maguire and Diogo Dalot before Matthijs de Ligt first reached the loose ball to shoot in the roof of an empty net.
At that stage it felt like the drama was over, but this is not a united side that likes to make life easy for itself.
As soon as Dorgu was sent by flying Hutchinson, he demanded brutal revenge on the Ipswich player in almost exactly the same place for the Dugouts.
You heard the sound of Dorgu's right -handed boots connected to Hutchinson's left shinpad of the stands.
“It was a red card, I was in front of it,” said Ipswich Baas Kieran McKenna. “There is serious damage to his tibia, but you hope it is nothing serious.”
While Hutchinson wriggled in pain and Var looked at the repetitions, it became clear that Dorgu's forgetful night came to an end.
Craig Pawson advised referee Darren England to go to the pitchside monitor and the signing of £ 29.4 million from United was on the way.
Amorims decision to sacrifice Garnacho for replacement Noussair Mazraoui was a special one, since the wing player of Argentina was again the most powerful attacking threat of United.
Garnacho certainly looked unhappy when he followed Dorgu the tunnel. “I'm going to talk about that clearly,” Amorim said.
If the plan would hold on to rest, it didn't work. Two minutes after extra time, Liam Delap and De Ligt fought to reach the cross of Philogene from the right, but neither made contact and he claimed his second goal of the night when the ball bounced past a stranded Onana in the far corner.
Returned united again. Two minutes after the interval, a different angle and a different seductive delivery of Fernandes Maguire were allowed to bend for Philogene to lead them back in front.
This time they did better to defend Onana's goal to calm all the persistent concerns that they could be dragged into the relegation struggle. Who thought we would say that about Manchester United?
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