Man United cruise past Crystal Palace to continue preseason winning run

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Anthony Martial continued his good form this summer with a third goal in as many games on the tour of Thailand and Australia but Manchester United's 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace in Melbourne was marred by sections of the crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground booing Harry Maguire.

Martial, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho got the goals against an under-strength Palace, who scored a consolation through Joel Ward, to maintain Erik ten Hag's perfect preseason record.

But the Dutchman had to endure loud boos for his captain, Maguire, for the majority of the first half and also saw 19-year-old defender Will Fish, who had only been on the pitch for 20 minutes after coming on as second-half substitute, sent off.

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Playing for a second time at the MCG, Ten Hag maintained his theme of starting with a strong team and again picked first-team regulars David de Gea, Bruno Fernandes, Fred, Scott McTominay and Sancho.

Maguire was also picked to start and when his name was read out, it was greeted with jeers from sections of the 76,000-strong crowd.

The boos continued for around 30 minutes each time Maguire touched the ball and only stopped when the England defender went close to scoring with a shot that flashed wide.

By that time United were already 1-0 up; Martial scoring for the third game in a row after chesting down Diogo Dalot's cross from the right.

Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

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Martial only scored four league goals last season before a disappointing loan spell at Sevilla but has taken his chance to impress Ten Hag in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo.

After making 10 changes at half-time in games against Liverpool and Melbourne Victory, Ten Hag stepped up his preparations for the new season by leaving on the majority of his starting XI until the 60-minute mark.

And by the time they went off, Rashford had finished off an exquisite team move which involved Martial, Sancho and Donny van de Beek and Sancho had raced away to calmly make it 3-0.

Once United had made a host of changes, Ward pulled one back with a header which squirmed under De Gea and Fish, playing for the first time on tour after joining the squad as a replacement for Axel Tuanzebe, was shown a straight red card for pulling back Victor Akinwale on the edge of the penalty area.

United, however, held on for a third successive win and next head to Perth to face Aston Villa in their final game of the tour.