Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick was most pleased with the way his side dealt with the setback of going behind following their 5-2 victory over the Blues at Old Trafford.

Leif Davis gave Town the lead but the Red Devils bounced back to level through skipper Bruno Fernandes before half-time, then romped to a 5-1 lead after the break, the Portuguese midfielder bagging a hat-trick, prior to Chuba Akpom’s late consolation for the visitors.

“It’s a week in football, isn’t it? The ups and downs,” said Carrick, whose team had been beaten 2-0 away by another of the newly promoted sides, Hull City, last weekend.

“The biggest pleasing thing, and we spoke about in the week, was about dealing with setbacks if you want to be a successful team.

“Every team gets beat. You’ve got to deal with setbacks, whether that’s momentum in the game, whether that’s a goal, whether that’s losing a game or a run of games, whatever it may be. You’ve got to deal with the setback.

“We spoke before about trying to overcome last week and then we took a mini-setback, if you like, going a goal behind.

“But showing stubbornness, belief, confidence and togetherness, the boys showed at that stage – in a small part, because we’re so early in the season – I think that was really pleasing for me.

“The way they bounced back, that’s probably the biggest thing to take. There’s a lot of highlights, but that mentality was what we really relied on today.”

Regarding Fernandes, Carrick added: “He means a lot to us. He’s the captain, he’s been here for a good number of years now. He’s experienced a whole load of different emotions, different things.

“He’s got a lot of experience to pass on and show them the way a little bit, and lead by example, help in different moments.”

Town had been the better side up to the equaliser, which had an element of good fortune after Marcelino Nunez lost his footing, and might well have been more than a goal in front.

Regarding what he said to his team at the break, Carrick said: “I just showed them a few things and little spaces for us to attack. I thought we largely controlled the first half, there were one-off actions where they had opportunities: defending against our corner that went through the middle and once or twice with one-v-ones wide that came into the box.

“Other than that, I thought we were decent without being at our very best. We got the layers on in the second half, the boys came out with that extra spark and extra bit of quality.

“We’re still trying to find a way to be at our best in the second game of the season, and we found that second half. I’m really happy with the way the game ended.”

On United’s controversial second goal, which VAR didn’t rule out despite Harry Maguire handling as it was an own goal by Jacob Greaves, Carrick continued: “I wasn’t totally aware of what had happened at the time, to be honest, with the handball scenario.

“But we started really well, applied pressure and did exactly what we wanted to do: be around their box, go second attack, third attack, and the boys were really good at that.

“In the end, things come your way and they certainly did today. Harry made the most of it with a little bit of help and after that we kicked on and finished the game well.”

Photo: TWTD