Benjamin Sesko enjoyed the best moment of his Man Utd career when he came off the bench to score an injury-time winner against Fulham.
Benjamin Sesko of Manchester United celebrates scoring his team's third goal during the Premier League match between United and Fulham
Benjamin Sesko celebrates scoring his late goal for Manchester United against Fulham
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Michael Carrick revealed Benjamin Sesko had been working with first-team coach Travis Binnion at Carrington to fine-tune elements of his game after the striker scored a 94th-minute winner against Fulham.
Sesko came off the bench to register his best moment for Manchester United since joining from RB Leipzig for £73million in the summer, turning on a Bruno Fernandes cross and producing a fine finish in front of the Stretford End.
The 22-year-old found some form under Darren Fletcher but had been on the bench for all of Carrick's first three games in charge. But after scoring three times in two starts under Fletcher, he showed the pause hadn't robbed him of momentum.
Sesko sent a header against the post soon after coming on, a chance he should have scored and which would have put United 3-0 up against the Cottagers. That miss could have proved costly as Marco Silva's side scored two late goals to snatch what looked like being a point.
But United went up the other end, and Fernandes found Sesko for the winner, with Carrick crediting his staff for the work they have done with the youngster, for who he believes that could turn out to be a big moment in his United career.
Sesko received a standing ovation when he returned to the dressing room and Carrick felt that showed what his teammates think of him.
"Huge moment. I'm so, so pleased. I think everyone in the changing room, players, staff, absolutely delighted for him and the reception he got when he came back in the changing room, kind of told us everything," said Carrick.
"He's been confident, to be honest. I think he's been fantastic. We've worked with him a lot in different ways over the last couple of weeks. He's been bright in training, he's looked dangerous, he's done extra. The coaches have done a lot of bits on the side, and Trav particularly has done a lot of work one-on-one with him.
"Ben's a big talent and he's got so many positive things and today's a huge goal because that feeling as a striker you have to score a winner in front of the Stretford End like that, it's kind of what you dream of really and after missing a chance, which is what it is for strikers to miss chances to go again, and put that away, absolutely so, so pleased from him. He really deserves it."
Binnion was promoted to Carrick's first-team staff from his role as Under-21s head coach at United and his work with Sesko paid off, judging by the young striker's calmness in front of goal to net the winner and secure a third straight win for the new-look coaching staff
"I knew today was going to be a really tough game," added Carrick. "You’re getting questions all week about what you're going to do about breaking down a low block. Fulham were never going to do that.
"They've shown that this is a really, really good team. So we knew today was going to be a big, big challenge, and I knew it wasn't going to be easy.
"Even at 2-0. They were 5-1 down against City and ended up coming back to 5-4. We knew that going into the game. I think the character to show that once we've had that big setback, it was a huge setback in the 90th minute, to do that on the back of what we did last week, off a setback, it’s probably the most pleasing thing, to keep the belief, keep the confidence.
"The rest of the game we can play better at times, we can do things a lot better in certain moments, but I can't fault the players, the spirit is taking us through today and it's a good feeling when it does."