BRU ARE YA? Fall guy Fernandes picks himself up to silence doubters

BRUNO Fernandes was the matchwinner for United at the weekend after a week where he was pathetically pilloried.

- SAMUEL LUCKHURST

Ushering the man of the match Fernandes into the mixed zone was an open goal that the Reds still missed.

Old Trafford is such a dated stadium there is not actually a designated mixed zone. The makeshift one is assembled on a concourse.

That was off-limits with thousands of supporters delaying their exit as they voiced their opposition to the Glazer family's occupation.

So we could not ask, "What have you made of the criticism of you this week?" Fernandes was denied an easier finish than his penalty.

Two days prior to the Nottingham Forest match, Fernandes shared a clip of Deion Sanders, the Colorado Buffaloes football coach, responding to a reporter.

"Look at me," Sanders says in the video. "What about me would make you think that I care about your opinion of me? Your opinion of me is not the opinion that I have of myself. You ain't make me, so you can't break me. You didn't build me, so you can't kill me." The reel was doubtless aimed at Fernandes's detractors. He was understood to be frustrated about the flak he copped in the aftermath of the 2-0 defeat at Tottenham and resisted posting an outright response after United staff advised against it.

Fernandes had been booked for dissent by the referee Michael Oliver at Spurs and afterwards wondered whether United would receive an apology for not getting a penalty, as Wolves manager Gary O'Neil had at Old Trafford five days earlier.