Josh Harrop stars for Manchester United as Jose Mourinho's men show youthful verve in Crystal Palace win

Manchester United 2 Crystal Palace 0: Harrop and Paul Pogba got the goals as a young United side finished off their league season in style

Harrop celebrates his sublime early strike on debut (Getty)

And in other news - out of nowhere, flashes of the best Premier League football Manchester United have produced here in nine months: displays of imagination and guile ignited by a 21-year-old who was out of contract as of Sunday night but will not remain so for terribly long, it is safe to say.

Josh Harrop’s hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur under-23s in this stadium on Monday persuaded Jose Mourinho to field him but the Manchester United manager did not foresee what unfolded. The Stockport boy looked utterly uninhibited and if his jinking runs down the left in the games early minutes did not prove that, then the manner of his goal did. Wayne Rooney was unmarked in Harrop’s eyeline as he cut inside the defender Martin Kelly, though he dispensed with that option, executing a shot into the top right hand corner instead.

This, from a boy playing out of position. He will tell you he is a no 10. And one who has attitude, having perfected a celebration routine which points out the name on his back. That’s the part of football that there is no knowing about, of course. When you blood a player, you can never entirely know is there is ice in those veins. That’s what they said about Rooney, granted an ovation and lasting chanting when he left this turf for possibly the last time on 87 minutes. A 16-year-old, Angel Gomes, ran on in his place. It felt like a changing of the guard.

The young striker evaded Kelly and fired home (Getty)

Rarely has this place needed a moment like Harrop’s 15th minute strike. No-one was fooled by the match programme cover proclaiming this as the ‘Grand Finale’ and no-one imagined the denouement of Jose Mourinho’s first Premier League season in this place being such an irrelevance. But the youngest United side ever fielded in the Premier League - average age: 22 years and 284 days – lacked the weight of expectation. They played like there were enjoying it – helped, it should be said, by an insipid Palace.

When Paul Pogba doubled the lead with four minutes, seizing on Joel Ward’s slip to place the ball between Wayne Hennessey’s legs after a strong run down the left by Jesse Lingard, it was only the third time United had netted twice in the Premier League here this calendar year.

Harrop wasn’t the only source of encouragement on the day when Sir Alex Ferguson marked the 25th anniversary of the club’s 1992 Youth Cup Final win by awarding trophies to that fabled team’s coaches. Another local prospect, 20-year-old full-back Demetri Mitchell, also impressed, lifting a ball which Rooney took down supremely and almost succeeded in hoisting over Wayne Hennessey. He made Kelly look ordinary again with a run to the byline and cross, on 70 minutes.


 Mourinho's youthful side played in entertaining style on the final day 
 (Getty)

Palace brought a little more after the break. Christian Benteke’s 55th minute header against the post brought a brief scare and Joel Perreira leapt to catch Luka Milvojevic’s free kick but the other principal source of interest was the body language of the players possibly stepping into Old Trafford for the last time.

David de Gea, who may have played his last United game with Sergio Romero preferred for Wednesday’s Europa League final, lingered for five minutes signing autographs on the way into the stadium and had a very hearty handshake for the doorman.

Rooney’s minutes at centre forward suggest that he will not have a leading role in Sweden and the stadium’s response when he hoisted that first half effort over the goalkeeper underlined the fervent desire for a parting shot. He was inscrutable when he left but his wave to the corners of Old Trafford felt like an ending.

Pogba doubled United's advantage (Getty)

It’s to be hoped that the display will put some jet fuel into a United whose preparations for Ajax are not helped by Mourinho’s complaints about work-load and injuries. Much of his choreography seemed to point out depleted resources, including the substitutions he made in the dying minutes of the first half, rather than wait until the interval.

The Portuguese signs off his first season here in a mood of simmering indignation towards those “pundits” he accused of trying to “hide the truth from their audience,” in his programme notes. In Harrop, there were grounds for encouragement. His football was uncomplicated and did the talking.

Manchester United (4-3-3): Pereira; Fosu-Mensah, Bailly, Jones, Mitchell; McTominay, Tuanebe, Pogba (Carrick 45); Lingard (Martial 45), Rooney (Gomes 87), Harrop. Substitutes: Blind, Willock, O’Hara, Dearnley

Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1): Hennessey; Ward, Kelly, Tomkins, van Aanholt (Kaikai 67); Milivojevic, McArthur (Sako 60; Zaha (Campbell 67), Puncheon, Schlupp; Benteke. Substitutes: Speroni, Dann, Campbell, Lee, Wan-Bissaka

Referee: A. Taylor (Manchester)

Star man: Harrop

Match rating: 7