Manchester United head coach Erik ten Hag has insisted that the Red Devils' last-gasp 2-1 win over Brentford must be a "turning point" in his side's turbulent season.
On the back of successive losses to Crystal Palace and Galatasaray at the Theatre of Dreams, discontent was growing at an alarming rate heading into gameweek eight of the Premier League campaign.
Having also been bested at home by Brighton & Hove Albion last month, defeat to Brentford would have seen Man United suffer three successive Premier League home losses for the first time ever.
Ten Hag was on course to set that new unwanted record in the first half, as the under-fire Andre Onana allowed a Mathias Jensen strike to squirm underneath his hand and into the back of the net.
The Red Devils had no answer to Jensen's opener for the majority of the contest, but an inspired substitution from Ten Hag saw the hosts - and more specifically Scott McTominay - break the Bees' hearts in injury time.
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In the third minute of added time, McTominay brought the ball down from the air expertly and clinically found the corner to level the match for his side, before meeting Harry Maguire's header across goal to nod home past Thomas Strakosha.
McTominay's heroics saw the 20-time English champions come from a goal down in the 90th minute or later to win a Premier League match for the first time ever, and they remain 10th in the table heading into the October international break.
Speaking to Sky Sports News after the enthralling finale, Ten Hag believes that Saturday's win must act as both a "turning point" and "restart" for his side, saying: "You are relieved in that moment when once again a game that was turning the wrong way for us, we found a turning point.
"It showed the big character in this team, the resilience, and that we have a plan to keep going and you have to make your own luck. We kept patient and carried on.
"I'm really proud of this team, they kept going the whole game. The belief was there. This has to be a turning point but also it has to be a restart because we have to get into higher levels."
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Ten Hag was coming under increasing pressure amid his side's dismal run of form domestically and continentally, but his job is not believed to have been under any real threat during the early weeks of the campaign.
Nevertheless, the former Ajax head coach wants his side to take more responsibility and be accounted for in future matches, adding: "The performance can always be better but it can't happen that you give a goal away.
"There were some good spells. We controlled the game over long periods. But when you give a goal away so easily, we can't do it at our level. We have to take more responsibility and be accountable to win games.
"You have to find a moment in the season you can build on - I think we have found it now. This game reflects a lot of our season start, the mistake... but then the comeback, the personality, the character."
Two-goal hero McTominay also addressed his historic injury-time feat on Saturday afternoon, claiming that his late brace was up there with one of his all-time favourite moments on a football pitch.
Following the international break, Man United will aim to keep the momentum going away to Sheffield United on October 21 before a Champions League trip to Copenhagen three days later.
Ben Knapton
