If Yorkshire-born, Sheffield-bred Manchester United captain Harry Maguire could have picked a time, a team, a ground and an end to score at it would have been in front of Elland Road's Don Revie Stand.
Maguire must have hoped Bruno Fernandes' headed goal would signal a procession. Scoring a second first-half goal was beyond United in their four unwanted draws this year.
"Two-nil in your cup final," bellowed the United fans, who then segued into a chorus of 'Leeds are falling apart again'. It was soon United's turn to fall apart. Two goals in two momentous minutes turned the game on its head and the frailties of this United side resurfaced in a madcap second-half.
Worse than David de Gea misjudging Rodrigo's cross was the ease with which Daniel James bypassed Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's recruitment legacy in a microcosm. Raphinha poached the equaliser. Nine minutes within the restart, it was 2-2.- Leeds fans elicited two deafening dins.
They were not as vocal at full-time, as the Mancunians rocked to Anthony Elanga's song to Rhythm Is A Dancer. Elanga stared down the Leeds fans and pointed to the United crest. Order had been restored, as far as the final score went.
Even before De Gea erred, United restarted casually, almost as if the players had forgotten anything they had learned about the rivalry in a ferocious first-half. Ralf Rangnick tragicomically likened the United-Leeds rivalry to Borussia Dortmund and Schalke. He is unlikely to do so again.
Unlike many of his players, Rangnick regained composure to effect the game through the introduction of Fred, one of the few players who cannot be accused of feeling cowed by the return of matchgoers. His positioning as an advanced midfielder in place of Paul Pogba restored United's lead.
Maguire, Victor Lindelof, Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw eschewed the celebrations and red smoke, instead heading to the technical area for a drinks break. They joined in when Elanga, the other arrival with Fred, ended Leeds's resistance with the fourth goal. Rangnick approached the United away-dayers and punched the air.
Pogba was key in the first-half, drifting to the left and conjuring a gilt-edged chance Cristiano Ronaldo somehow hit at the jittery Illan Meslier. His individual form has mirrored United's in that Pogba struggles to sustain it past the pause and his withdrawal was prudent game-management. Jadon Sancho was once again influential in both halves - and both flanks - and seems certain to end David de Gea's monopoly of the club's player of the month award.
Missiles rained down on Fred and his teammates, with Elanga hurt after the third goal, as they did on Maguire. If they hit him the Yorkshireman may not have felt it, so euphoric was the celebratory knee-slide. All the frustration at the criticism of Maguire's role was channeled into his seventh and most satisfying goal for United.
There was never any chance of Maguire retreating from the incensed Leeds supporters behind the goal. For a player unnerved by a crowd at his former club Leicester in October, this was an acid test of Maguire's captaincy credentials and status.
One sensed from the warm-up Maguire was stirred by the rivalry - how could he not be? He bullishly applauded the United supporters and they did more than put their hands together when Maguire literally rose to the occasion.
That a United player had scored from a corner for the first time since January of last year was a sub-plot. Leeds shipped 15 goals from set-pieces last season and 12 this season. United exploited their air sickness from open play, securing the invaluable second goal prior to the interval through Fernandes.
The armband will be strapped to Maguire's armband until at least the end of the season, a topic put to bed by Rangnick for the rest of his interim reign. Beyond that, it is dependent on the new manager. Should he be stripped of the privilege, Maguire will always have Leeds.
It will have been particularly sweet for the United fans in the archaic John Charles Stand that Maguire stooped a minute after a section of the Leeds fans had broken into a rendition of the Munich air disaster chant. A pre-match video went viral of a United fan holding aloft a Turkey flag - a reference to the two Leeds fans killed in Istanbul in 2000 - on a coach approaching the ground.
Leeds became the first away supporters in years to air the Munich chant at Old Trafford in August, supposedly in response to a United fan unfurling a Turkey flag, and did so again, many accompanying it with airplane gestures. On an afternoon where vitriol and missiles poured down as relentlessly as the rain in this epic, wry chants were scarce.
As kick-off loomed, a lone Leeds fan sauntered towards his seat serenading Dominic Matteo, fondly reminiscing about his goal at the San Siro. For Elland Road's younger denizens, this was their introduction to a bilious rivalry and the early kick-off had not tempered the adrenaline coursing through them. There was a palpable edge incomparable with the other grounds United have entered not just this season but in recent years. The players will not encounter louder boos within these shores.
The away section was vastly populated long before kick-off and there was an early battle cry of Pride of All Europe, which features the lyric 'we hate the Scousers, the Cockneys, of course - and Leeds'. 'We all hate Leeds scum' was aired ahead of the teams' formal emergence and the hymnal Marching On Together only interrupted by the sight of the red shirts.
Leeds fans' booing was accompanied by relentless chants of 'scum', 'Yorkshire' and 'Manchester, w--k, w--k, w--k'; the latter two doubtless lost on the Spanish, Portuguese, French and Swedish starters in the United XI. The air was thick with pyrotechnic that seeped out of flares as much as hatred did from the frothing fans. 'Stand up if you hate Man U' was tame.
Fernandes went down in front of the Don Revie Stand and was dubbed a 'soft scum b-----d'. Scott McTominay left Robin Koch with a bloodied brow. Some chants were unrepeatable. It was so febrile the United goalkeeping coach Richard Hartis briefly remonstrated with the fourth official Mike Dean over planned substitutions.
Whenever United played the opposition, rather than the occasion, they were dominant. They gained the elusive two-goal interval advantage for the first time since the glut of draws from 1-0 half-time leads but had to do so again in the second.
Appropriately, a brawl broke out once Leeds were beaten, prompting both coaches to stride onto the pitch as peacemakers, now fully educated in the tribalism of the Roses rivalry.
Maguire already was.
