Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer bemoaned his side’s fatigue and their busy schedule, but praised matchday captain Scott McTominay.

The Scotland midfielder scored the only goal of the game after five minutes, a goal that proved to be the winner against Watford on Saturday night in their third round FA Cup game.

Solskjaer told BT Sport after the game that his team had started well but fell away after the early stages.

“I thought we started really brightly, played some nice football, got in behind them, created nice chances, got the first goal,” he said.

“After 15, 20 minutes it seemed like the balloon popped.

“They really gave us a good game.

“We started giving them the ball back easily. We tried to complicate it, maybe one or two went out of position. When you have Andre Gray and Ismaila Sarr, your heart is going to be way up here.”

The Norwegian praised McTominay for his contribution and made it clear that he trusted him to perform with the armband.

“He’s a leader. I thought maybe today we’d give it to him to see how he reacts wearing the armband. Brilliant today.

“We’ve always trusted our young men coming through, and Scott’s one of them who has the DNA of Man Utd in him.”

Solskjaer complained that his side were in the middle of a busy period with games against Burnley and Liverpool on the horizon after a frantic festive schedule.

“It’s the whole season in one,” he said.

“I don’t think many teams have a midweek game this week and last week. We’ve just got to rotate, and the boys got us a result.”