Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag believes the comeback victory against Brentford is proof of the “togetherness” in his squad.

Despite Ten Hag’s pre-match assertion of the media’s “fairytales and lies” around how secure he was in his job, no-one at Old Trafford was happy with United being 14th in the Premier League table at kick-off.

Long after the final whistle, Ten Hag remained furious about referee Sam Barrott’s decision to send Matthijs de Ligt to the touchline to get a head wound treated in first-half stoppage time.

Reduced briefly to 10 men, United immediately conceded from a Brentford corner.

Any concerns Ten Hag felt about his own position were contained. Instead, United used the sense of injustice to fuel their comeback.

“I felt we were the best team in the first half,” said Brentford boss Thomas Frank. “In the second half, it was definitely the opposite.”

Without a Premier League goal in three and a half games, United equalised almost immediately after the restart thanks to Alejandro Garnacho’s sensational first-time effort. Fifteen minutes later, striker Rasmus Hojlund applied a deft chipped finish to Bruno Fernandes’ sublime flicked pass.

United had chances to increase their advantage but after five games without a win in all competitions and Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce to come in the Europa League on Thursday, victory was paramount, with Ten Hag believing the manner of it said much for the spirit and determination in his squad.

“For everyone it was an enjoyable afternoon,” said the Dutchman. “In the second half we showed we are together.

“We showed determination and we scored two beautiful goals.”

This being Manchester United, the pressure valve has only been released a small amount.

There is a long journey ahead before the swirl of speculation around Ten Hag will not return on the back of a single result.

Even the United boss accepts there is no more significance to the victory than the accumulation of three points for only the third time this season.

“No, it is just a win,” was Ten Hag’s curt reply when asked if the success could be regarded as a turning point.

“The pressure is always there. We have to win every game.”

It is stating the obvious to say United need to score goals in order to win.

Much was made before kick-off of the fact Brentford striker Bryan Mbeumo had scored more Premier League goals on his own (six) than United had managed between them (five).

That statistic no longer holds but still, United should have scored more than two, and in Garnacho they now have someone who has scored more than once in the league.

Publicly, Ten Hag has no option but to back his players to deliver, even if the evidence is that they will struggle to achieve that consistently.

“This team has the capacity to score very good goals,” said Ten Hag. “Today the two goals we scored were high quality and when you score and win you add confidence.

“At the start of the season we had some good performances but didn’t score enough, then everyone is negative.

“This result can help us, but it is only one win and we must build on it.”

Frank said Barrott had got the call around De Ligt’s head injury right. Ten Hag and United clearly disagreed.

The former Bayern Munich defender initially was hurt early in the contest when he collided with Kevin Schade’s knee and was left with blood running down his head.

De Ligt went off to have the wound patched and came back on. However, the problem resurfaced again, which led to De Ligt having to go off again.

Barrott then stepped in immediately after awarding Brentford a corner.

De Ligt kicked out in anger as Ethan Pinnock escaped the limited marking of Diogo Dalot to put Brentford in front. United assistant manager Ruud van Nistelrooy marched down the touchline to express his disgust at fourth official Gavin Ward, with Ten Hag coming up behind him to do the same. Both were booked.

The complaints continued as the teams went to the tunnel at half-time.

Frank observed: “If Manchester United had a corner and we took out Nathan Collins because he was bleeding, they would want to take it.”

That seemed fair enough.

Ten Hag’s point was that De Ligt should not have been removed from the game in the first place.

“It was dry blood,” he said. “He had already been treated for the injury. I didn’t understand why he was sent off and I didn’t know why. It was a huge moment because Brentford are very good at corners and we were without one of our best headers. Definitely we were angry at half time.”