Man Utd were the victims of an injustice on derby day and no number of apologies are going to make Michael Carrick feel any better.
Michael Carrick
Michael Carrick was angry with the officials after Manchester United's derby day defeat
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As he conducted his post-match press conference after defeat in the 199th Manchester derby, Michael Carrick was told he might yet get an apology from Pro Refs for the decision which cost his side at Old Trafford.
"Yeah, that'd be great. I can't wait for that one," Carrick said. The look on the 45-year-old's face said it all. At this stage, a sorry would be an irrelevance. The damage had been done.
As it turned out, Carrick didn't have to wait long. While he faced the media at Old Trafford, at Pro Refs HQ they were already preparing to pick up the phone for the mea culpa. Carrick branded the mistake to allow Erling Haaland's goal an "obvious" one and the rulebook wasn't going to save the refereeing body this time.
The issue was all the more farcical because the correct decision was made on the pitch. The linesman had raised his flag and the goal had been ruled out, and that should have been the end of it.
Instead, VAR Matt Donohue told Michael Oliver to overturn the decision and award the goal. The correct process on a subjective decision was to send Oliver to the screen so he could decide whether Enzo Fernandez was interfering with play, which he clearly was.
United remain convinced that had Oliver gone to the screen, the decision would have stood and the goal would have been disallowed. So you can see why Carrick has little time for apologies.
An avoidable mistake made by someone sitting 200 miles away from Old Trafford cost his team valuable points and has added to the pressure building on his own shoulders.
Officials will always make mistakes, but VAR was introduced to avoid exactly this kind of error. It's hard to understand how anyone involved in the game can believe Fernandez wasn't interfering with play, given his attempted header forced a dive from goalkeeper Senne Lammens, who then couldn't recover in time to save Haaland's shot.
That there are two VAR officials sitting in the booth at Stockley Park, and neither could spot the influence the passage of play had on Lammens, is alarming. It is officiating by numbers rather than showing any real feel for the game.
The goal certainly changed the course of the match. United were rattled and took too long to regain their equilibrium. They had begun the second half on the front foot, although again without creating any high-quality chances, but lost any sense of momentum with the goal.
We will never know how the game would have panned out if the on-pitch decision had stood. City hadn't had a shot for 30 minutes before Haaland's goal and may not have threatened again, but United hadn't really looked like scoring either.
But there is no getting around the fact that the result is damaging to Carrick. Four points from four games is a poor start to the season and it feels as if there is significant pressure on the weekend's trip to Fulham.
It's too early to be talking of worst-case scenarios, but Carrick won't be sleeping easily this week. He will know this performance was far from perfect, but the fact that it ended in defeat puts him in the toughest hole he's been in since taking the job in January.
You can understand why he had no real interest in a sorry on Sunday night.