Martinez's slice of luck wins it for United
Lisandro Martinez's fortuitous effort earned Manchester United a 1-0 victory at Fulham in a drab Premier League encounter at Craven Cottage.
A game lacking in quality was settled by a huge slice of fortune when Martinez's strike from 30 yards deflected off Sasa Lukic and looped over Bernd Leno in the Fulham goal.
It represented the only shot on target for Ruben Amorim's men, who otherwise had failed to really hurt their opponents, but Amad Diallo had second ruled out late on, with the goal awarded on the pitch but overturned after a video assistant referee (VAR) review for offside.
Fulham, in fairness, had created little until Joachim Andersen saw a thumping header cleared off the line by substitute Toby Collyer in the closing stages.
United had just one effort in a forgettable first half where a couple of Alex Iwobi stingers were all Fulham had to show for its endeavours.
Bruno Fernandes stuck a low free-kick into the side-netting as the second half followed a similar pattern until Martinez tried his luck from range and saw his attempt cruelly loop over Leno via Lukic.
Collyer headed Andersen's flicked header from Andrea Pereira's corner off the line as Fulham thought it had a late equaliser.
United then thought it had doubled the lead through Diallo deep into stoppage-time, but his low drive into the bottom-right corner was ruled out for offside.
United boss Amorim, who turns 40 this week, was delighted to get over the line with the three points but accepts there is work to do to improve in the final third.
"I think so [that improvement is needed in attack], even in the second half when we wanted to change some things we lacked some pace and power up front," he said.
"But it is what it is, we need more of the ball to create chances and to take the ball into the last third. We struggled with these details, but winning helps to improve.
"It's really important to have this feeling away from home, we have great support from our away fans as always. It was not a great game. You can feel it, not great chances.
"We tried to control the game, play our game, but we need to improve a lot, you can feel it. This time we get the result. It's really important to win now."
With the transfer window closing in a week, there is still the opportunity for Premier League clubs to do business.
But Amorim says United has to be careful to comply with profit and sustainability rules and to also avoid a repeat of expensive transfer mistakes in the past.
"We have to be cautious, even with the rules here we know that we have to follow the rules," he added.
"I think we made mistakes in the past, we cannot do it, we are focused on improving the team. But let's see."
Cottagers defender Calvin Bassey felt his side did well to stifle United's attack but did not feel Fulham did enough to hurt its opponent.
"I thought we deserved more. We controlled the game, and it wasn't our day," he said.
"You need a bit of luck in football, and it didn't come our way today. We had a lot of chances, maybe in the final part. In the end, it could have been better.
"They didn't create too much to trouble us. We were aware of their quality. I felt like we didn't create that many clear chances."
