Manchester United took advantage of Matthijs de Ligt's controversy on Saturday to return to 2-1 against Brentford in the Premier League.
United moved up to 10th in the table with their third win of the season despite Ethan Pinnock's late first-half injury-time goal.
The Red Devils were disappointed that De Ligt was not allowed to enter the field to defend a corner that he had blocked from a Kevin Schade cross.
There was a clash with Schade earlier in the match when De Ligt leaned towards a bouncing ball and smashed the top of his head into the German's knee, which left De Ligt bloodied.
In the 45th minute, he was taken off the field for a second time so that United's medical staff could try to stop the bleeding. Shortly after his return, referee Sam Bennett again called for the Dutch center-back to be sent off, allowing Pinnock to take advantage of the poor scoring from a set-piece.
"We felt a bit of injustice and you used it as fuel for the second half," said Ten Hag, who saw the excellent Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund score beautiful passes to secure a much-needed victory. "We picked up the pace and scored two great goals. I liked the performance, especially in the second half."
Ten Hag and his assistant Ruud van Nistelrooy received yellow cards for their protests after Pinnock's goal and the United manager argued that De Ligt should have been allowed to continue as he was not bleeding at the time.
"It was dried blood, that wound had already been treated, it was just dried blood. "No one on our team understood why he was kicked out," he said.
"I went to Mattijis and asked him 'what's wrong' and he said 'It's just dried blood, I have to get out, I don't know why.'
"Of course, it was a great moment because Brentford is very good at corners and when you miss one of your best headers and they take advantage of it, of course, you are disappointed."
As for the moment that inspired his players, Ten Hag added: "It's hypothetical, we'll never know. But we were really angry in the first half."
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