Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag accused Nottingham Forest of targeting Bruno Fernandes in his side’s FA Cup win at the City Ground and branded criticism of his captain as “pathetic”.

The Portugal midfielder overcame a “serious injury” to play his part in United’s 1-0 victory at Forest, setting up Casemiro’s 89th-minute winner from a free-kick.

Forest looked fortunate not to be reduced to 10 men in stoppage time after Felipe grabbed Fernandes’ throat.

He was on the receiving end of plenty of robust challenges from Forest throughout the 90 minutes while also being the butt of social media jokes after Saturday’s loss against Fulham.

Fulham’s official TikTok account poked fun at him for appearing to feign injury and it got Ten Hag’s back up.

Asked about the severity of Fernandes’ injury, he said: “I don’t want to go into that because you saw that Forest was targeting him, so I don’t tell what he has but it was a serious injury.

“There were many fouls on him. Maybe I am a little bit too tough but when he has the ball they were really tight on him.

“Then I see that serious media criticise him and social media is pathetic and it can’t be.

“He has a serious injury but he continued to play on Saturday and today he also fought to be part of the game and he has a very high pain threshold.

“Last year he did also something similar against Spurs and in the semi-final and it shows his leadership because that expresses his character and that is very good when you are a leader.”

The history of United and English football could have turned out very differently if Mark Robins had not scored for the club against Nottingham Forest back in January 1990. Sir Alex Ferguson was on the brink of being sacked when Robins struck the winner in an FA Cup third-round tie.

It prevented a fourth straight trophy-less season for Ferguson and the rest, as they say, is history. This dramatic victory – witnessed by Sir Alex in the stands – provides a welcome shot in the arm for Ten Hag.

His injury-hit United not only bounced back from the home loss to Fulham but avoided extra-time exertions before this weekend’s derby clash with Manchester City.

Ten Hag added: “It’s big – we want to win every competition – the team fighting, showing determination, passion and desire.

“They showed it today, we were disappointed after Saturday but we showed resilience. We have serious problems at the back four – happy Rapha [Raphael Varane] and Bruno [Fernandes] fought to be part of this game. It was so important, Bruno’s assist.

“It was hard to line-up, especially the back four – it was a puzzle. We found the right formation and organisation – first half although we created chances, we allowed them some counters.

“After that we took control of the game – we were calm, composed – we got the switches, we took control, didn’t allow counter-attacks, very pleased with the second half – pleased with the spirit and desire showed.”

On facing Liverpool in the next round, the United boss said: “There are many good teams in the Premier League – Liverpool are top so it’s a very good challenge for us. We are looking forward to Sunday [against Manchester City].”

Casemiro’s goal survived a lengthy VAR check as Varane, who was in an offside position, blocked a couple of Forest players, but he was ruled not to be interfering in play.

Such has been Forest’s frustration at refereeing decisions in recent weeks, they have appointed Mark Clattenburg to act as a conduit to the PGMOL and he was spotted sat next to Howard Webb.

This was another decision that went against them but boss Nuno Espirito Santo, who swatted away Ten Hag’s suggestions of targeting Fernandes, did not want to dwell on it.

Nuno said: “I didn’t see clearly the images but speaking with the players they say it is a block and a possible offside. They checked it.

“We have had so many issues in this period with VAR and referees that we try to forget about it and move forward.

“I think it was a good performance, we played good, much better than the previous game, so improvement from that.

“It is frustrating to lose it in the end but I think we played good, football is cruel sometimes and today we are on that side.”