Mason Mount won the game for Manchester United as his strike sealed a 2-1 comeback victory over Crystal Palace
Mason Mount and Bruno Fernandes played a key role in Man United’s win at Crystal Palace(Image: Zohaib Alam – MUFC/Manchester United via Getty Images)
It may have been freezing conditions near the away dressing room at Selhurst Park at full time, but the jovial mood among the Manchester United squad was keeping spirits warm. Captain Bruno Fernandes joked with Joshua Zirkzee to pull his trousers up while a beaming Luke Shaw spoke at length with veteran commentator Martin Tyler before heading to the team bus.
Ruben Amorim was keen to continue the positive atmosphere as he took one look at the assembled cast of journalists waiting in the mixed zone and teased doing a preliminary press conference before the main event. In the end, he made his apologies and ran up the stairs to the Media Centre.
Match winner Mason Mount’s positivity was obvious as he strolled up to the journalists, joking that we were blocking him from exiting. When the laughter subsided, Mount took us into the conversation between himself and Fernandes shortly before the winner.
He explained: “We always have a little conversation. I said to him: ‘I will roll it for you,’ and then he said: ‘You stay there,’ and then I said: ‘You shoot,’ because obviously the sun was difficult today and was causing a few problems for us first half with long balls and I thought it would be difficult for Deano [Henderson] to see the ball in goal.
“And then he said: ‘You stay there,’ and rolled it over and you can see with my reaction to getting on the end of it…He obviously said it but really quick and that’s why it helped out the situation. They didn’t see it coming, they didn’t see us talking, they were late to react and it is about finding that little bit of space in the wall, that little disruption and then hit the target.”
Sunday was the first time Mount has completed 90 minutes in the league since he was at Chelsea, coincidentally against the same opposition as this weekend. “It felt like a long time,” Mount laughed when asked about playing the full game.
“It is obviously a massive positive for me as well. I have been working hard recently, I feel really good now so to get that 90 minutes under my belt is really positive, it is all about recovery now and going towards the next game.”
At half-time it felt as though such a light-hearted conversation with Mount was not going to take place. United were poor in the opening 45 minutes and were deservedly behind at the break thanks to Jean-Philippe Mateta’s re-taken penalty.
While United fans may have been panicking, this was not the case for Amorim in the dressing room. Mount said: “He was saying to keep going, stay calm do what we needed to do. We all knew what to do in that second half.
“They have just played recently so we felt they could drop off in that second half, there was chances there for us so just carry on what we are doing. Obviously difficult to go down 1-0 but we showed character to get back into the game in the second half.”
While not the perfect performance, the result is all that matters at this stage for the Reds. They are now back within touching distance of the top four and Mount was clear his desire is now to push on.
He said: “I have had niggles but nothing bad at all [this season]. I have felt good this season, I had a good pre-season under my belt, I have been working hard in training every week, not just me, but as a group we have been at it, it’s up and down but we are in a lot better place me personally and a group.
“We need to kick on now, win more games and the most important thing is to win, difficult result in the last game but to come back today was massively important. So yeah it is time to kick on now and shoot for those top four positions.”