Rooney out for a duck at Swansea – Swansea V Manchester United 23rd of December 2012

Wayne Rooney had a stinker; couldn’t put a foot right all day. For as bad a game as he had, you still think that there would be a moment of genius or magic from him where the game would turn but Sir Alex Ferguson eventually ran out of patience and substituted him for Ryan Giggs on 79 minutes. As for Giggs, you could hear the grown from United fans reverberating around the valleys when he was brought on. Giggs caused Swansea more problems in the last ten minutes than Rooney had even dreamt of in the preceeding eighty.

Upper tier of the away stand at Swansea (Photo courtesy of Josh Norton)

Continue reading Rooney out for a duck at Swansea – Swansea V Manchester United 23rd of December 2012

Postcard from the Stretford End – Manchester United V Sunderland 15th of December 2012

Due to a long standing pre booked long weekend in Benidorm, today was the first and health permitting, last match at Old Trafford I´ll miss this season. Any hope I had of laying off my season ticket today was well and truly scuppered on Thursday morning when United sent a text message out to all season ticket holders offering to move their seat if they wanted to bring a heathen (none member) with them. I literally couldn´t give my ticket away for today´s match, a Saturday which has historically always enticed a lower attendance (unless United are playing a traditional enemy), due to it´s proximity to Christmas and fellas being out shopping with their wives/girlfriends. I find it perversly reassuring in the the some things never change sense, that behind the phony Premier league and SKY tv quasi religous fervour, the attendances will be affected by this weekends antics in the Dumplington centre.

 

Continue reading Postcard from the Stretford End – Manchester United V Sunderland 15th of December 2012

Fergie Time: 25 Years ago 1986/1987

United made a terrible start to the 1986-1987 season, apparently still in a state of depressed inertia after blowing a ten point lead the previous season. The reds didn’t win ’til the 13th of September, beating Southampton 5-1 but United were only out of the relegation zone on goal difference. The discontent on the terraces towards Ron Atkinson was now coming to the fore. Ron Atkinson never had the hearts and minds at Old Trafford with the fans the way Sir Matt Busby or Tommy Docherty possesed, despite being very popular with the media. The United team were suddenly looking old and tired, players who should have never have pulled on the red shirt, like Graeme Hogg, Colin Gibson & Johnny Sivebaek were getting regular games. The main problem with the midfield of Bryan Robson, Norman Whiteside and Paul McGrath was trying to keep them out of the pub. Up front, we had a forward line of an ageing Frank Stapleton, the incredible Terry Gibson, a man who was signed from Coventry in exchange for Alan Brazil, he had the physical build of Diego Maradona and the footballing skill of Madonna and the hard working but not good enough signing from Nottingham Forest, Peter Davenport.

United drawing at Filbert Street in September 1986

United were drawn against Southampton for the 3rd round of the League Cup and six weeks after beating them 5-1 at Old Trafford, drew 0-0 meaning a replay at the Dell. Just over a week later, Southampton beat United 4-1 to knock United out of the league cup in what was Atkinsons’ last match as United manager.

Ron Atkinson’s last match as manager at The Dell

We’ve since learned that Bobby Charlton sounded Alex Ferguson out about the United managers job at 1986 World Cup in Mexico whilst he was there as Scotlands’ caretaker manager.

Alex Ferguson who’d nearly become Tottenham Hotspur manager when Keith Burkenshaw resigned in 1985, had been a phonemenal success in Scotland as Aberdeen manager and he had a clause in his Aberdeen contract that if Manchester United expressed an interest in him, he could talk to them. The talks which ended up in Ferguson becoming United manager were conducted in such a clandestine way as to bless a novel by Ian Fleming. On the 5th of November 1986, Ron Atkinson was dismissed as Uniteds’ manager, he walked away with a dignity which Tommy Docherty would’ve done well to witness and emulate. The following day, Alex Ferguson was announced as Uniteds’ new manager. He had two days to prepare for his first match against Oxford United at the Manor Ground. United lost 2-0 to Oxford, Ferguson claimed later that the enormity of what he’d taken on became apparent that day.

United lose 2-0 at the Manor Ground on the 8th November 1986. Alex Ferguson’s first match in charge

Following a goalless draw at Carrow Road, United won for the first time under Alex Ferguson when Johnny Sivabeck scored against Queens Park Rangers in a 1-0 win two weeks after he took over the reigns. Following a 1-0 defeat to newly promoted Wimbledon and two consecutive 3-3 draws against Spurs and Aston Villa, United went to Anfield to play the previous seasons double winners, Liverpool. If there was one game United didn’t need at this moment it was to be playing away to a Liverpool team whom in my opinion, at that time, would’ve given any team in the world a good game. As per usual in this fixture during the 1980s, Norman Whiteside upset the scousers and the form book whilst delighting the bookmakers to give United an unexpected win and as an added bonus, incur the wrath of the legendary John Peel on Radio 1. United only won one away league game all season, it would be typical that of all the places to get that win, it would be Anfield where it happened. Everything that symbolised United during that era occurred the following day when United lost at home to a Norwich City who in those days, were no mugs, but they shouldn’t have been beating United at Old Trafford.

Norman Whiteside scores the winner at Anfield on Boxing Day 1986

In early February and in a game where Terry Gibson scored his only goal for the reds, United won 2-0 against a title challenging Arsenal side who’d been taken over by George Graham the previous summer. This was the first sign of the steel Ferguson had instilled in the United side. Norman Whiteside wound up Arsenal midfielder Paul Davis and full back Viv Anderson to a frenzy and alongside Bryan Robson, ran the midfield imperiously. It wouldn’t be the last time during Fergusons reign that a match involving United and Arsenal became heated. Ferguson steadied the United side for the rest of the season to achieve mid table safety by March. On Easter Monday, with a last minute goal from Peter Davenport, United completed their first league double over Liverpool since 1969/1970.

United beat Liverpool 1-0 on Easter Monday 1987 with a late goal from Peter Davenport. Look out for Alan Hansen in the run to the goal. “Dreadful defending Des”

United finished the season in 11th place and with a 3-1 win over Aston Villa. In the FA cup, United beat Man City in the third round with a goal by Whiteside before losing to eventual winners, Coventry City in the fourth round. After the start to the season United made, the fans were generally happy with the placing but were hoping on a quick improvement. What United fans didn’t then realise was that the charismatic and likeable Atkinson had left the club in a shambles. In them days, City had a pretty decent youth side and were getting the best kids off the streets of Manchester, Uniteds’ youth side, despite reaching the youth cup final in 1986, losing over two legs to City, was a mess. This along with sorting out the active social lives and bonding sessions that Uniteds best players indulged in was Fergusons overriding priority which came to a head during the hilarious and now infamous interview with Norman Whiteside and Paul McGrath, on Granadas Kick off programme where both of them had clearly had a good day, just prior to an away match at Loftus road. This new policy was implemented much to the chagrin of pub landlords in Hulme, Salford, Altrincham…

United are knocked out of the FA Cup by eventual winners, Coventry City on the January 31st 1987. Look at the state of the pitch… 

Back In The Summer Of ’89 – Manchester, 23rd of October, 2011

Everybody’s talking about The Stone Roses as United are bookies’ favourites and about to play City. After a promising start by United, City run riot and are 3-0 up before United score a great goal to give some faint hope. It’s all in vain as City attack again in waves before winning comfortably, 5-1. This is a memory of mine from September 1989, a memory I never thought I’d see repeated, but today, it’s even worse. At least when City won 5-1 in 1989, it was at Maine Road, today, they’ve won 6-1 at Old Trafford.

Nearly two months ago, I watched United give Arsenal the same kind of thrashing I watched City give United today. Before today’s game, the word on the quiet from my red brethren was a draw would be a good result due to the obvious fact that City are playing well and United, despite good recent results, are not.

Since City beat Tottenham 5-1 at White Hart Lane, there’s been all kinds of talk about how this could be their year. My belief has been that City have not played any team that they shouldn’t beat since then and I was waiting to see how they’d get on against teams like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or United. Today they gave a pretty good answer. Knowing City fans the way I do, they’ll already be out in the satellite towns of Manchester (despite all their talk, you won’t see many City fans in Piccadilly Gardens tonight) celebrating winning the title, like last season, before the clocks went back. This City team certainly can but there’s a long way to go ’til next May. As things stand, United are twelve goals & five points behind City, today’s a bad loss but we’ve all seen United recover bigger deficits than this.

On a personal note, I’m writing this an hour after the game, the result hasn’t yet truly sunk in, all I know for sure is City deserved the win. One thing I’ve gotta say in fairness to City fans is that for the first time in my years of watching derby matches, not once did I hear any mention, celebration or singing about the Munich air crash. Whether this is down to them now having a good team and thus not feeling the need to celebrate a tragedy or whether it’s down to the deserved slapping some of their fans got on Wembley Way or the motorway services last April, I don’t know but it was refreshing not to hear it.

United started the game with plenty of possesion and aggression but, despite that, I never thought at any time that City were under any pressure. Ballotelli’s goal was just too easy and when Jonny Evans got sent off in the opening minutes of the second half, I could feel a long afternoon coming on. With City three up on seventy minutes, United went into a kamikaze attacking mode without actually looking like scoring. The understanbly boisterous City fans were quietened with ten minutes to go when Darren Fletcher scored. City fans know from plenty of past experience that if any team could come back from 3-0 down, it’s United and there was a nervous quiet amongst the City fans’ section, just to my right but whilst United kept on trying, City’s defence were just too disciplined to be rattled. I believed when Fletcher scored that it was only at best a face saver, in the end, with three City goals in injury time, it wasn’t even that.