Manchester United fans and Harry Maguire might surprise themselves in final weeks of season

It took just under three minutes for Harry Maguire to receive a yellow card against Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon.

Maguire was caught out by a simple long ball forward and he hauled Taiwo Awoniyi down to deny a counter-attacking opportunity. The City Ground responded with chants of 'Leicester reject' and his calamitous start was almost made worse shortly after that.

In the 20th minute, Maguire attempted to clear a Forest corner and the ball touched his trailing arm in the box. VAR checked the incident and a penalty wasn't given, but the replays suggested that he was fortunate not to be penalised.

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Roy Keane, who was on punditry duty for Sky Sports, said during half-time that perhaps Maguire 'deserved' that bit of luck for the penalty not being given and that was a legendary United captain empathising with the current club captain.

Maguire endured the worst season of his career last year but he was certainly not the only player guilty of that in the dressing room. He's since unfairly become a convenient scapegoat and the butt of jokes when those displays should be behind him.

Keane was among the most prominent voices to  criticise Maguire last year, but the club has moved on and so should the narrative surrounding a player who might be limited but who can still have a crucial role to play this season.

Although Maguire was only handed his seventh league start of the season against Forest because of injuries to Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane and he made a poor start to the game, he admirably recovered and was solid throughout.

Forest have scored the joint fewest goals this season, but they were not allowed to record a single shot on