My Ultimate Gacha System

"Scott. Demien. Don’t go inside yet — the cameras want both of you."

The staff member didn’t mean one shared spotlight.

He pointed McTominay toward the Premier League Productions position near the corner flag, then angled Demien the other way, toward MUTV’s setup closer to the tunnel mouth.

McTominay glanced back, still fighting for breath.

Demien shoved him lightly toward the first camera. "Go — they want to hear about the two goals, not me."

"Don’t disappear before I’m done," McTominay said, already backing toward the sponsor board.

Demien followed him as far as the PLP position before peeling off, close enough to watch.

A small sponsor board stood angled behind the interviewer, her earpiece catching the stadium lights, a camera operator backing into place while a sound tech adjusted the handheld mic against the noise still rolling down from the stands.

"Scott, what does it feel like, scoring twice in stoppage time to win a game like that?" the interviewer asked.

McTominay laughed once and looked toward the Stretford End before he answered. "I don’t — I can’t really put it into words, if I’m honest. I come on with what, four minutes left, and we end up winning the game. Got to be one of my favourite moments on a football pitch, that."

"What did the manager actually tell you before you went on?"

"Honestly, it was that loud out there I only caught half of it," McTominay said. "Get in the box, get behind the strikers, attack anything that drops — that’s about all I heard, but it was enough."

"Talk us through the first goal."

He mimed the touch with a small movement of his boot as he answered. "Ball’s dropped at an awkward height there, so the main thing’s just getting it out my feet before their man closes me down. After that I’m not really thinking about placement, I just hit it."

"And the winner?"

"No time to be nervous with that one," he said. "Free kick goes up, I’ve stayed out of their sight a bit, waited for the first lads to move, then gone into the space behind them. Credit to Demien for the ball in. We just didn’t stop till the whistle — that’s what got us there."

"Can a result like this be a turning point after such an up-and-down few weeks?"

McTominay shook his head slightly. "One result doesn’t fix everything. We know ourselves we haven’t been good enough. But you can build off a night like this, going into the international break."

Demien caught only fragments of it from where he stood, the stadium announcer and the crowd still louder than the broadcast area, but he smiled when McTominay admitted he’d barely heard Ten Hag’s instruction.

The MUTV interviewer waved him over once PLP wrapped, sticking to questions that were actually his.

"What changed when you dropped from central midfield into the deepest position at half-time?" she asked.

"Our biggest problem in the first half was players receiving with their backs to their press," Demien said. "Once I dropped in, my job was offering the first pass, getting rid of it before their second man arrived, and staying behind the attack whenever we pushed numbers forward."

"Was it difficult playing alone at the base once Lindelöf came off and you went to a back three?"

He smiled, tired rather than pleased with himself. "It got risky, yeah. Every time we cleared a cross, you had Mbeumo or Maupay or Onyeka running straight into the space I was meant to be covering. Last twenty minutes, the pitch felt wider than it normally does."

"Were you deliberately looking for Scott on both assists?"

"Yeah," he said, without hesitating. "For the equaliser, Rasmus and Anthony had their centre-backs occupied, Scott held his run late behind them, I waited for their midfielder to commit to the shot, went past him and found Scott in the gap. For the winner, Harry and Rasmus moved their first line, Scott started outside the group and attacked the far side the second the ball went in."

"What went through your head when the earlier goal was ruled out?"

The irritation came back into his face before he answered. "I was furious, if I’m honest. Then Bruno pointed at the board — six more minutes — and once I saw that, there wasn’t any point arguing. We still had time."

"What does this win mean heading into England duty?"

"It feels massive, the way it came so late," Demien said. "But we shouldn’t need ninety-seven minutes to fix a performance like that. Scott was incredible today. The mistake for their goal, the chances we didn’t create — we’ll still look at that properly."

Back at PLP, a United media staffer told McTominay he’d won the supporters’ vote for Man of the Match and steered him toward the presentation board.

Photographers called out for different angles as the award changed hands in front of the sponsor wall.

Demien stayed outside the frame, applauding rather than crowding into every photo, letting the moment belong to the player who’d earned it.

Once the photographers finished, McTominay turned and lifted the award slightly in Demien’s direction.

"Apparently playing ninety minutes is optional now," Demien said.

"You needed eighty-seven of them just to work out where I was standing," McTominay shot back, and Demien laughed properly before the media handler waved them both clear for the next interview.

The sound changed the moment they left the bowl for the tunnel — the crowd dropping to a muffled roar behind the concrete, boots striking the floor, photographers still working the tunnel mouth, staff moving past with equipment and match sheets.

McTominay went in first while Demien stopped to sign off on his completed interview.

The dressing room reacted the second Scott appeared.

Bruno started clapping from the middle of the room, benches took a beating from a dozen hands, and Højlund got to him first, grabbing the award straight out of his fingers before he could even set it down.

Nobody rushed to quiet it.

Garnacho tried a bad impression of the headed winner and claimed he’d have scored it without even jumping, and McTominay told him he wouldn’t have reached Demien’s delivery with a ladder.

Demien joined the noise rather than sitting off with the system panel, took the award from Højlund, turned it over as though checking the spelling of Scott’s name, and handed it back before McTominay could object.

The adrenaline started draining fast once the celebration settled.

Demien dropped onto the bench and felt both calves seize at once, stretching one leg out while a physio brought over a recovery drink and asked whether it was cramp or something worse.

He tested the movement. "Just tired. Nothing sharp."

Casemiro sat quieter than the rest of the room, half out of his kit, forearms resting on his thighs, watching the replay of Brentford’s goal loop silently on one of the screens.

Demien noticed him watching it again.

Once the celebration thinned out, Casemiro came over near the treatment area.

"The first-half mistake was mine," he said. "I tried to turn through a trap we’d trained against."

"The second half wasn’t proof I should take your spot permanently," Demien told him. "It’s just what the game needed once Brentford caught us."

"You handled it right," Casemiro said. "Next time you’re back there alone, though — don’t get pulled into every attack."

Demien nodded, thinking of the two moments Brentford had nearly broken through the space he’d left behind.

Onana approached once Casemiro had gone, pulling off his gloves as he walked, one still caught around his wrist where the strap hadn’t come loose all the way.

"Jensen’s shot should’ve been stopped," he said.

Demien hesitated before answering. "I nearly shouted at you when it went in."

"I could tell," Onana said.

"You made two saves after that United wouldn’t have won without," Demien told him. "Both things are true. You made the mistake, and you kept us alive later."

Onana didn’t offer any excuse, just bumped Demien’s fist and headed for the showers.

McTominay broke the mood from across the room, asking loudly whether anyone planned to congratulate him again or if the dressing room had already moved on to picking apart mistakes.

"Two goals bought you about five more minutes of attention," Bruno told him, and the room laughed, Onana and Casemiro included.

Ten Hag stepped in once the music dropped, no long speech behind it.

He congratulated McTominay for coming on ready, praised the whole squad for continuing after the disallowed goal, then told them plainly that the review would still cover the turnover, Brentford’s set pieces, and United’s failure to create enough before stoppage time.

He reminded the internationals that their recovery times and release details would land on their phones that evening, and that anyone reporting to a national team Monday still had to complete Sunday’s recovery and medical checks at Carrington unless told otherwise.

Ten Hag’s own media duties ran in two stages, a short broadcast interview pitchside before the written press conference underneath the stadium.

"Erik, is that relief more than satisfaction tonight?" the broadcaster asked.

"Both, I think," Ten Hag said. "But we created our own chance by continuing after the goal was disallowed. Big credit to the team for that resilience. This can be a turning point — but only if the standard changes after the international break."

In the press room, the first reporter asked why McTominay hadn’t come on sooner.

"The plan needed Eriksen’s passing and Demien’s control at the base first," Ten Hag said. "Once Brentford dropped fully into their block, we needed another body attacking the penalty area. That’s why Scott’s profile became more valuable late."

"What does this performance say about McTominay’s place in this squad?"

"Scott trains every day to be ready," Ten Hag said. "He plays for this club, and he can make a difference in both boxes. You saw that today."

"Why was Casemiro substituted?"

"We needed faster circulation against their first pressure, and another creative player ahead of the ball," Ten Hag said. "The turnover was poor, yes. But that’s the change we made. It is tactical."

"How did Demien cope as the only holding midfielder?"

"He gave us control," Ten Hag said. "He released the ball before Brentford completed their trap, he can switch play quickly, and he has the pace to defend in transition. But he went too high a few times also. He will need to correct that if he plays this role again."

"What about Onana?"

"The goal should not be conceded," Ten Hag said, no softening in it. "Responsibility is required here, at this club. But he made two important saves late in the game, and he stayed present mentally after his mistake. Both are true."

"Does the win disguise another poor performance?"

"The fight pleased me," Ten Hag said. "The full performance, no. We controlled long periods without creating enough, and we gave them the lead through a mistake we could avoid. The comeback is only useful if we learn why it became necessary."