There was barely a ripple when Anthony Elanga quit Old Trafford two summers ago.

Erik ten Hag didn’t fancy him. He wanted to spend £86m of the club’s money on Antony instead. The Dutchman also believed Alejandro Garnacho would be a better bet.

A fee of £15m was banked and the young winger was shown the exit door. It was clear that if he was going to find a route for success, it wasn’t going to be in the red shirt of .

But, oh boy, did he find a route to glory last night - he streaked 80 yards from inside his own penalty area to net the goal of his life. The 22-year-old anticipated Ryan Yates’s clearing header, actually beginning his run from inside his own area.

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He collected it 15 yards up field and ran. And ran. And ran. Finally firing a finish beyond Andre Onana as navy blue shirts unable to get close enough to foul him. The truth is that Elanga’s goal was the spectacular highlight of a battle that never really caught light. Ruben Amorim’s side went the way of so many this season.

They made a mistake. They were punished for it by Nuno’s disciplined band of brothers. And didn’t have the guts or quality to rectify it. They are in the bottom half of the for a reason, after all. The visitors were toothless and clueless in equal measure. Forest were off the back of an energy-sapping two-hour slog on the south coast against .

Amorim’s side had the weekend off. An independent viewer would never have guessed. But it’s worth highlighting It was from the first action of the game that United’s skipper forced Matz Sels into a decent stop to his right after trying his luck from 25 yards.

The Belgian international pushed the ball out for a corner. It was fired into the near post and cleared. Then the magic happened. Elanga actually started his run from the edge of his own penalty area but took possession of the ball 20 yards further upfield after Ryan Yates headed clear.

Garnacho tried to keep up. But wasn’t quick enough to clip the heels of the Sweden international as he got up to speed. Faced with such naked pace, United were in trouble. A gap opened up and Elanga charged towards it, firing a left foot shot past the unprotected Andre Onana.

In the context of the game, it gave Forest an advantage to work with. Nuno’s squad didn’t arrive back from their FA Cup quarter-final shoot-out victory over Brighton until the early hours of Sunday morning.

Although this perfectly fitted the pattern they had worked to in such a disciplined fashion, the XI that had carried the men in the Garibaldi red shirts to third place had frayed around the edges.

The home boss was forced into two changes by the break. Midfielder Danilo and right-back Ola Aina were both withdrawn to accompany the absence of in-form striker Chris Wood and Callum Hudson-Odoi, who was given leave due to personal issues.

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By that time, Diogo Dalot had sent a looping header into the crossbar after Fernandes escaped Yates’s attention to take a corner without being bothered by his opposite number. Amorim had to try something. The answer was to dispatch Rasmus Hojlund into the fray and the Dane was only marginally off-beam with an effort with a few seconds of going on.

It was a similar tale for - inches wide with a snapshot. Amorim gambled by asking to play up front in the final few minutes. He was actually a better option than the hapless Joshua Zirkzee.

That pressure almost told in the last seconds of injury time when Murillo cleared off the line from Maguire. But that would have been unfair. Forest deserved their night. And so too did Elanga.

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