OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER celebrated a year in charge by moving within touching distance of the one trophy he missed out on as a player.
In over a decade smashing in the goals for United, the League Cup was the one honour he failed to pick up.
This morning – exactly 12 months since he took over from Jose Mourinho – he wakes up in the semi-finals – against Manchester City – and the chance of ending his first full season in charge by holding it aloft.
Yet it took a game of patience before that place in the last four was sealed. Fully 50 minutes, in fact, as Colchester – 46 places below them – held firm.
Then three quickfire strikes in ten devastating minutes cut them to shreds and put Solskjaer – who won 12 major honours but never the League Cup as a player here – in the semis.
No-one was more relieved at that second half blitzkrieg than Marcus Rashford, who had a stinker in the opening 45 minutes, but ended it with his 14th goal in 16 games.
No-one was more heartbroken than full back Ryan Jackson, unfortunate victim in United’s first two goals which were so cruel for him in particular.
RASHFORD'S FIRST-HALF NIGHTMARE
For the first of them, Rashford finished after making the most of the space Jackson had left in a rare pillage into opposition territory.
For the second, on 56 minutes, Jackson could do nothing but divert Mason Greenwood’s cross into his own net off his thighs, with Rashford lurking just a yard out.
And that, in an instant, ended any hope of a shock, any hope of a third Premier League scalp for John McGreal’s men, and turned a tricky night at the office into an ultimately routine one.
Yet for so long it had been anything but. For so long it had been all possession and no prizes for the Ole trinity of Rashford, Greenwood and Anthony Martial.
It took Colchester all of 20 minutes to even get a touch in the United half – and that a wasted free kick a yard from halfway.
Yet it was anything but backs to the wall for the minnows. Efficient and organised yes, but they didn’t have to be brilliant.
Rashford in particular, who has been as deadly as any striker in the land of late, was having a nightmare.
The fact one of his shots actually ended up spinning away for a throw-in tells you all about his first half.
Twice Andreas Pereira picked him out with pinpoint over-the-top passes.
Both times he was onside. Both times he fluffed his lines.
The first of them saw his control let him down with a clear goal ahead. The second was a total swing and miss with an even clearer view of the target.
AS TIGHT AS CRAMP
And as every minute ticked by, a little more hope, a little more belief that maybe they could spring a shock pumped through Colchester veins.
United may have had over 80 per cent of the ball, but only once did Dean Gerken have a serious save to make.
That came from a Rashford free kick which did actually find the target and was initially spilled by the U’s keeper.
You could say that Gerken got himself in a pickle but then made amends as Juan Mata waited to finish with relish.
Mind you, it wasn’t the only time Colchester have been as tight as cramp at the back. Spurs and Palace couldn’t score against them before crashing in penalty shoot-out defeats.
Indeed, only Crawley Town had managed to put one past them before this tie, so expectations of an avalanche were always likely to be wildly optimistic.
In fact the U’s could actually have sneaked a lead, had Callum Harriott’s daisy cutter been a yard or so to the left.
True, it would have been unjust. Yet given United’s woeful and wasteful finishing, they could have only blamed themselves.
As it happened, though, any danger of that was blown away in that blink-of-an-eye second half blitz.
First Nemanja Matic found Rashford in the space the still retreating Jackson would have occupied, and he cut inside to smash home.
Then, when Greenwood drilled over a cross from the right, the covering Jackson could only turn it from bang in front as Rashford lurked.
Cruel luck, yes. But nothing fortunate about United’s third, a marvellously crafted goal which would have sliced open far better opponents than Colchester.
Juan Mata’s chipped pass over the top of a for once flat-footed defence was exquisite, as was Rashford’s volleyed “put me away” cross.
Antony Martial, sliding in at the far post, did just that from a yard or two out and it was full steam ahead for the semi-finals.
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In little more than the blink of an eye, it was game over. Any chance of a shock suddenly turned into a routine victory.
For Colchester, little to celebrate other than pride and reputation intact and on another day, perhaps even with a goal to take away with them.
As for Solskjaer and United? However stuttering the journey has been so far, the bright lights of Wembley move ever closer…
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