Seeing West Ham win a penalty deep into stoppage time, and presented with an unexpected chance to equalize against Manchester United, David Moyes made a bold call.

Having left Mark Noble on the bench throughout the 90 minutes, the West Ham manager decided now was the moment to deploy his captain.

Noble’s first touch of the ball was taking the penalty, striking it low toward the corner of the net. Then something of a rarity happened — the ball was pushed away by David De Gea. After conceding 40 spot kicks in a row, it was the first time since 2016 that the United and Spain goalkeeper had saved a penalty.

United held on to complete a 2-1 victory in the Premier League on Sunday after a comeback sparked by Cristiano Ronaldo canceling out Said Benrahma’s deflected strike, by reacting after his initial shot was saved. Even more galling for Moyes than the penalty miss, the scorer of the winner in the 89th minute was Jesse Lingard. He was on loan at the Hammers from United last season but wasn’t allowed to come back to the east London club.

“I was laughing,” Moyes recalled of his exchange with Lingard after the curling strike. “I wish he hadn’t scored, but we had a chance to get a draw out of it and we missed our chance.”

Not that Moyes had any regrets about bringing Noble on after Luke Shaw handled.

“Mark Noble is one of the best penalty kick takers we’ve got,” Moyes said. “We had time to think, time to make that choice, my choice, my decision. That’s what happens in management. You have to make big decisions, sometimes they go (right), sometimes they don’t and maybe the job’s for some people and maybe not for other people.”

Moyes used to have the United job, for less than a season after Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013. No United manager since Ferguson has lifted the Premier League trophy.