It’s a shame, in many ways, that Manchester United and Michael Carrick are just too far gone. That his departure remains imminent and inevitable, that it’s still inconceivable United could continue with him beyond the upcoming international break.

Because if there were any chance at all of this actually turning round and becoming something, what an outrageous starting point to the recovery this ludicrous 3-2 victory over Roma might make.

But it isn’t and cannot be that, sadly. It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened. Riotously entertaining stuff, sure, containing the full gamut of The Manchester United Experience and all that entails.

The first half was as wretched as anything United have served up this season. They were playing all the hits. Constantly stretched alarmingly out of shape at the back, where Roma always seemed to have a spare attacker or two to find. Non-existent in midfield. Soporific and static in attack, with a visibly rattled Bruno Fernandes in full arm-waving furious conductor mode as he desperately tried to inspire some life in his listless colleagues.

Both Roma goals came inside the first 20 minutes. Both were horrific United errors, casually giving the ball away and doing nothing much about it before Matias Soule – given the freedom of the United box for neither the first nor last time in that nonsense first half – slotted past Senne Lammens.

Minutes later, United were giving the ball away again and Ayden Heaven was blocking a shot by sliding in with his arm outstretched. It wasn’t even a ‘European handball’. It was just a handball, despite the commentators’ initial bafflement.

It could have got worse before half-time, and there was no indication it would get better. Not until added time in the first half did United even given Roma’s third-choice goalkeeper, only called into the starting XI at 5pm a save to make. And even then it was from a powderpuff long-range Kobbie Mainoo effort.

Everything about that effort – its pitiful lack of bite, its inexplicable late arrival – summed up everything about United’s first half.

And then there was the second half. A wild intoxicating yet surely misleading thrill ride. You’d need a heart of stone not to be pleased for Carrick to get this last hurrah, this final famous European night. And to give him his dues he certainly said something at half-time that lit a fire under United. Yet even that is damning in its own way because why only then? Why not try playing with a bit of fire and brimstone in the first half? It’s not like it had all been going swimmingly before tonight.

It did look like it was going to be more of the same when the first action of the second half was the sight of Carlos Baleba limping off in agony after pulling his hamstring when through on goal. You feared at this point that United might be setting generational levels of banter era.

But it turned out that the ‘through on goal’ was actually the instructive part of that little scene. Because United were suddenly pouring forward with purpose and skill and precision.

They still required two huge slices of luck along the way. Two misplaced Roma boots at the most vital of moments. The first encroaching in the penalty area when Bruno’s first attempt at a penalty was tame and easily saved. He thrashed home the unexpected chance with the relief of a man who knew he’d got away with one.

Then Leonardo Balerdi airballed a routine clearance and Matheus Cunha claimed a big prize for buying a raffle ticket.

By now the game had become one his momentum had become unstoppable. There was no surprise when the same player hammered home a brilliant third. Having also won the penalty that (eventually) started the comeback, it was quite a night for Cunha who couldn’t drag himself away from the action even when handed the second of two late yellows for a ridiculous Striker’s Challenge in the closing minutes after collecting his first yellow for his celebrations of what proved to be the winner.

He may yet one day experience a more dramatic eight-minute period in his career than the one that encompassed both goals and both yellow cards here, and if so we very much hope we get to see it.

As United’s 10 remaining men held on through an inevitably fraught injury time, questions of what any of it means (probably nothing) and what happens next (probably the same as would have happened anyway) did feel like they could wait. That this could stand on its own as a thing that happened and that United desperately needed.

A nine-match run without a win ends short of the embarrassment of double-figures. The fans who threw tennis balls on the pitch in the first half – or their £3.50 pies if they’d forgotten to bring tennis balls with them – and then booed United off at half-time could issue full-throated cheers at the final whistle.

Roma, who had been having a lovely time until they weren’t, simply didn’t know what hit them. Once United got back into the game, the visitors were simply swept along by the tide. It would be a shame if their contribution to the night is lost in the drama of its conclusion.

They really are a huge amount of fun. Three proper sh*thouses at the back. Assorted vibrant younglings who run at you with alarming freedom. A familiar face up front enjoying a new lease of life having escaped the Barclays. Absolutely textbook European opposition, that.

And all under the watchful eye of Gian Piero Gasperini, the wily old veteran who has now been the visiting head coach for two games at Old Trafford, led 2-0 at half-time in both of them, and lost them both 3-2.

This season in this competition his team have now led at 82 minutes 3-1 against Real Madrid and 2-1 against Manchester United, and lost both of those matches.

And he still wouldn’t swap places with Michael Carrick.