Scott McTominay scored twice in stoppage time to ease Manchester United’s crisis with a badly-needed 2-1 win over Brentford on Saturday.
The Bees looked set to snap their own seven-game winless streak after Mathias Jensen opened the scoring with the aid of some more poor goalkeeping by Andre Onana.
United were staring a third home defeat in eight days in the face until substitute McTominay proved the unlikely hero.
The Scotland midfielder has been in fine goalscoring form at the international level but was only introduced by Erik ten Hag three minutes from time.
McTominay found the net three times, but after his first effort was ruled out for offside, he struck twice in six minutes of added time to ease the pressure on his manager.
The victory lifts United up to ninth and within four points of the top four.
Ten Hag’s task was not helped by a mounting injury list in defence with Raphael Varane’s absence adding to the unavailable Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Tyrell Malacia, and Sergio Reguilon.
The out-of-favour Harry Maguire was paired alongside 35-year-old Jonny Evans in central defence as a result.
But it was United’s under-fire goalkeeper who was the culprit for the opening goal.
Casemiro was also at fault as he gave away possession cheaply to Yoane Wissa, who surged into the United box.
Victor Lindelof’s attempted clearance came back off Wissa and into the path of Jensen.
But the Dane’s low effort should still have been kept out by Onana as the ball slipped through his right hand.
The Cameroonian goalkeeper, signed from Inter Milan for £47 million ($57 million) in July, has made glaring errors as United have also lost their opening two Champions League group games for the first time.
That lack of confidence carried over into Premier League action and United looked set to suffer a repeat of last weekend’s 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace as they laboured in the search for an equaliser.
Marcus Rashford forced the Bees’ stand-in goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha into a save at his near post.
However, Rashford still looked a shadow of the player that scored 30 goals last season and there were cheers from the home crowd when he was sacrificed for Alejandro Garnacho just after the hour mark.
Ten Hag also sent a message by replacing the out-of-form Casemiro for the second period.
Antony was introduced for the final half-hour for the first time in the Premier League since he returned from a leave of absence to confront allegations of domestic abuse.
But it was another substitute who might have turned United’s season around.
McTominay thought he had been denied his moment of glory when Anthony Martial was flagged offside for touching Garnacho’s cross into his path.
Strakosha was making his Premier League debut and the former Lazio goalkeeper did not cover himself in glory, undoing all of Brentford’s good work late on.
Firstly, he spilled Diogo Dalot’s shot and McTominay skilfully controlled and smashed home the loose ball.
Strakosha could also have done better with the winner as he failed to claw out McTominay’s header from Maguire’s flick-on, sparking manic scenes of celebration among the home fans.
AFP