The 18-year-old was taken off at half-time by Louis van Gaal on Sunday but showed talent and character to spark Manchester United into life at Upton Park

Marcus Rashford made a name for himself a few weeks back because Anthony Martial injured a hamstring during the warm-up of the Europa League home game against Midtjylland. What a twist of fate that turned out to be, a moment to be thankful for in this most arduous of seasons. Here it was Martial who found the youngster on the edge of the penalty area in the second half and, with a jink of the feet and a swerving shot, Rashford set Manchester United on the way to the semi-finals with a beauty.

United’s victory was a team one. The defence, much improved from Sunday’s debacle at Tottenham Hotspur, largely shut out West Ham United on a frustrating night for Slaven Bilic. A rainbow arced over the Boleyn Ground during the first half of the Hammers’ last Cup match at Upton Park but there was to be no gold at the end of it.

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Rashford and Martial were dynamic in attack and, for a player who was substituted at half-time at White Hart Lane and replaced with Ashley Young, the 18-year-old proved a point. He has now scored six goals in his 11 games and an academy kid few had heard of in the winter has a chance to play at Wembley.

It is now easy to see why the former United coach Paul McGuinness said Rashford “can score unbelievable goals”, before adding: “But he needs to be more like Ruud van Nistelrooy where it goes in off his knee.” In reality Rashford has surpassed all expectations since stepping into the first team but this goal was the pick of the bunch, a soaring effort that flew into the top corner in the blink of an eye.

It was not just the goal, either. The teenager’s turn of pace proved a menace during the first half and, although he scuffed a volleyed effort wide after a cross from Timothy Fosu-Mensah, the threat was constant.

Martial was influential but also significant was the improvement in United’s defence. Andy Carroll had one key say in the game – his leap and header back across goal setting up James Tomkins to score in the 79th minute – but other than that he was relatively quiet. Louis van Gaal spoke before this game of the “Andy Carroll show” against Arsenal and the striker was unable to achieve such dominance here.

During the first half his most significant moment came late on with a wild challenge on Ander Herrera, as West Ham struggled to create opportunities once the opening 15 minutes had faded. Marouane Fellaini did a job on Carroll in the air, although Chris Smalling lost him for the West Ham goal. Van Gaal had said he wanted his defence to communicate better after the 3-0 defeat at Spurs and, with the exception of early openings, they appeared much improved at the back.

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In truth they could not have been much worse but the same back four of Smalling, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo and Fosu-Mensah coped admirably with the challenge of Carroll and Dimitri Payet. Manuel Lanzini was finding pockets of space in the opening stages and, although Enner Valencia forced a low save from David de Gea following a cute ball from the Argentinian, the presence of Fellaini and Herrera in midfield soon provided Michael Carrick with the time to exert influence against his former club.

Carroll headed narrowly over De Gea’s crossbar in the 88th minute before a flurry of later West Ham pressure resulted in a double save by the goalkeeper. However, it was to be United’s night, as Rashford was replaced by Wayne Rooney just before the end. Of all the English forwards on display, it was Rashford who stole the show.