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Manchester United defender Chris Smalling has lifted the lid on what Jose Mourinho said to his players at half time during the Manchester Derby on Saturday.

United ran out 2-3 winners on the day to delay Manchester City's sealing of the Premier League title, and had found themselves 2-0 down at the interval.

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The Red Devils were abysmal in the first period but two goals from Paul Pogba followed by Smalling's winner spared their blushes.

The visitors came in for a great deal of credit for the way they came from behind, and now Smalling has revealed what the Portuguese said to spur them on as they stared humiliation in the face.

As quoted by the Sun, he said: "At half-time we were feeling sorry for ourselves. We wanted to go out there and play with pride and I thought we fully deserved it in the end.

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"The manager didn't have to say much at half-time as we knew ourselves as players it was a poor performance. He said that he didn't want to be the clowns standing there watching them get their title."

United would certainly have looked like clowns had they continued to play in the same way as they did for the first 45 but clearly the threat of appearing like that before the watching world was enough to snap them out it.

United were excellent after the break and completely shellshocked City, who were extremely wasteful in their finishing and arguably didn't get the rub of the green on some decisions.