Laws behind why Fernandes' cheeky attempt to save Carabao Cup tie didn't count

You can't fault Bruno Fernandes for trying.

With the clock ticking down on Manchester United's hopes of staying in the Carabao Cup, the Portuguese midfielder was forced into desperate measures.

Having fallen behind to Manuel Lanzini's ninth-minute opener, United couldn't find an equaliser and were staring defeat in the face in stoppage time.

Cue Fernandes' daring attempt to pull a cheeky stunt on West Ham to try and send the game to penalties.

After the match was stopped for a drop ball in favour of the Hammers, Fernandes nicked in ahead of his opponent and raced towards goal.

The referee dropped the ball only for Bruno Fernandes to nick in ahead of Mark Noble

None of West Ham's closest defenders reacted as he steamed through before slotting the ball home.

Sadly for him, it didn't count.

The laws of the game state that when a dropped ball takes place anywhere outside of the penalty area "the referee drops the ball for one player of the team that last touched the ball at the position where it last touched a player, an outside agent or a match official."

It then adds: "All other players (of both teams) must remain at least 4 m (4.5 yds) from the ball until it is in play."

Fernandes steamed towards goal before sticking the ball in the net - but it was ruled out

Had West Ham's Mark Noble of touched the ball before Fernandes pounced, it would have been fair game.

Unfortunately for him, United were unable to snatch a late goal and have now crashed out of the competition in the third round.

"Really frustrating and disappointing to be out of one of the competitions at such an early stage," Fernandes wrote on social media. "Time to reflect, to improve and to fight hard for the other competitions."

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had rung the changes for the clash, naming a completely different starting XI to the one which beat West Ham in the Premier League on Sunday.

Only Jarrod Bowen kept his place for the visitors though, as David Moyes also used the fixture as an opportunity to rest his first team.

Speaking after the match, Solskjaer lamented United's sluggish start but took plenty of positives from the encounter.

"We had a poor start, then some good bits and then towards the end when we went gung ho, we opened ourselves up and of course they could have scored a few more," he said.

"I thought the boys gave it a real good go, worked really hard and we ended up with 27 shots which is quite remarkable. Maybe you could see some players needing minutes but that's natural."

Reflecting on United going out of the competition, he said: "We've got to the semi-finals the last two years and it's a competition we've got tradition for to give players minutes because we need to think about the bigger picture.

"Today, we made that decision and some of them will definitely come out stronger for it because they've now got 90 minutes under the belt and are ready for the league and the Champions League, and the FA Cup when that starts."

Meanwhile, West Ham march through to the fourth round, where they will now meet Manchester City.