Maguire pleased to end corner goal hoodoo which ’embarrassed’ him

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Manchester United have finally scored a Premier League goal from a corner this season.

At the 140th time of asking, Harry Maguire nodded in United’s first goal from such a situation to open the scoring against Leeds.

United’s set piece record this season has been incredibly disappointing and the corner record is especially bad, which is something Maguire acknowledged after the game.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Maguire admitted that the goalless corner run had been a source of embarrassment to him as the season has worn on and the monkey is off United’s back now.

“Embarrassing – every time I see the stat, I’m embarrassed myself,” said Maguire.

“I’m a big part in that set play routine and trying to score goals from corners. As a team, as a group, we’ve been nowhere near good enough.

“If we score more from set plays, we’ll be higher in the table. You can play all the pretty football you want but set plays are a massive part of football.

“This season has been nowhere near good enough on that behalf.”

It is a woefully poor record for any team, let alone one of United’s ambition and resources, but the first one has gone in now and it is to be hoped that more can follow on from that.

Maguire should be scoring more than he does for United. He manages it for England but for whatever reason, he cannot translate that to the club game despite playing alongside international teammate Luke Shaw.

Cristiano Ronaldo is another who will be looking to score more from corners and it is to be hoped that the record improves now.

United showed character to battle back after having given up yet another lead and keep up with the pace after Tottenham and Arsenal both won yesterday.

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