IT WAS THE first time in three years that there had been a Manchester derby at Maine Road owing to City’s relegation from the top-flight in 1987.
The previous edition had seen a 1-1 draw played out, just weeks before Ron Atkinson was sacked as United manager.
For Alex Ferguson, he’d experienced two local clashes prior to September 1989 and won them both. But the third would leave an imprint that would take decades to disappear.
The season had started impressively for United as they thumped four past Arsenal on the opening day. But that wasn’t what made the headlines.
An hour before kick-off, the 47,000 fans in attendance were greeted by the bewildering sight of a moustachioed property tycoon named Michael Knighton – dressed in a United training top, shorts and socks – who ran on to the pitch, juggled a ball at the half-way line and scored a goal at the Stretford End before blowing kisses to fans.
He was the ‘chairman-elect’ of the club, with United’s Martin Edwards keen to sell. Knighton promised big things and bid £10m, telling Edwards he’d invest a further £10m in rebuilding Old Trafford. With a takeover essentially complete, United had invested heavily in new players during the off-season. Gary Pallister was a record signing for a defender. Other big fees were paid to sign Neil Webb, Paul Ince and Danny Wallace.
United spent big in the summer of 1989 but also brought Mark Hughes back from Barcelona the previous year. PA
PA
But the feel-good factor quickly evaporated. Regardless of their impressive opening and expensive recruits, United suffered three straight league defeats – to Crystal Palace, Derby and Norwich and despite some respite in the form of a big home win over Luton, they headed to Maine Road with serious question marks hanging over them and their boss.
They faced a City team that was struggling. Mel Machin’s side had one win from six games and were relying heavily on a group of standout youngsters who had pushed the team to FA Youth Cup success over United three years earlier. The likes of Paul Lake, Ian Brightwell, Andy Hinchcliffe and David White had all stepped up and impressed.
And the quartet were influential as City ran riot.
Knighton was in attendance and gleefully signed autographs beforehand, though United’s subsequently chaotic display would act as the perfect metaphor for what would soon happen behind-the-scenes.
Ferguson’s side never seemed to recover from early crowd trouble that resulted in both teams being escorted off the pitch for 10 minutes.
Pallister was run ragged all afternoon and badly at fault for City’s opener. Wrong-footed, he stretched and missed White’s low cross and David Oldfield swept beyond Jim Leighton.
United were stunned and City smelled blood. Just two minutes later, Mal Donaghy erred on the edge of his own area and though Leighton conjured two excellent saves in quick succession to spare his blushes, another moustachioed figure (it was the 80s) – Trevor Morley – finally forced the ball over the line as it broke free.
Ten minutes before the break, City conjured an exquisite third as Pallister was done by Oldfield in the right channel and when the striker whipped in the cross, Ian Bishop met it perfectly with a diving header.
Bruised and battered, United did muster an eventual response and scored the best goal of the game through Mark Hughes’ spectacular scissors kick five minutes after the restart.
Advertisement
But, City responded again shortly after as the superb Lake raced through and unselfishly squared for Oldfield to tap home. Within minutes, there was a fifth as White curled in a magnificent delivery to the far post and Hinchliffe headed powerfully past Leighton.
Paul Lake, whose career was cut short through injury, was a crucial ingredient in Manchester City's famous 1989 win. Neal Simpson
Neal Simpson
Years later, Lake – in his excellent autobiography I’m Not Really Here – described the mood in the City camp directly after the full-time whistle.
“I was lying on the treatment table clutching an ice pack to my leg when the final whistle went, and the huge roar from the stadium almost levitated me to the ceiling. Before long my team mates piled in, happy and glorious, and the dressing room erupted.Once the celebrations had died down, I gave a champagne fuelled interview to BBC Radio Manchester’s Ian Cheeseman.“So what was the secret of today’s victory Paul?” he asked.
“I ate raw meat for breakfast” I said baring my teeth.”
The Maine Road crowd had revelled in both the scoreline and how it was sure to affect Ferguson’s prospects of keeping his job.
In the immediate aftermath, he bemoaned the individual errors and stayed away from offering any excuses.
“If you give away silly goals you haven’t got a chance,” he said.
“It’s like trying to climb up a glass mountain.”
But the scars remained for a long time. In his autobiography, Managing My Life, Ferguson admitted to retreating to his house and mulling on the result in the dark.
We were slaughtered 5-1 in the most embarrassing defeat of my management career,” he wrote.After the game, I went straight home, got into bed, and put the pillow over my head. A sense of guilt had engulfed me.”
The impact of such a demoralising result wasn’t just felt by Ferguson either.
Pallister, who had struggled majorly, headed straight for his hometown of Middlesbrough to try and clear his head and spend time with his family.
When he returned to The Cliff for training on Monday morning, he was reminded of just how bad things were at United.
“There was no security and when I walked from the dressing room there were four burly United fans waiting for me outside the door,” he described in his own book years later.
They told me I wasn’t fit to wear a United shirt, we shouldn’t have sold Paul McGrath, I was a ‘disgrace’ to the club, the whole treatment. I thought it was just me but it turned out that all the lads had got abuse from these guys. They really ripped into us and it was quite frightening.”
“The funny thing was that we started off really well (in the game), playing lovely football, but then there was trouble behind one of the goals which spilled over to the side of the pitch, and the players were taken off. After that, everything City hit went in. I’d say it was the lowest point of my entire career.”
But United did react well, losing just once in their next seven league games. However, by the start of December, the wheels had completely come off.
Knighton lost his financial backers and the takeover deal, embarrassingly for all invested parties, collapsed. On the field, United went ten league games without a win.
At a shareholders’ meeting in December, the atmosphere was toxic. 80-year-old William Humphreys, who had watched his first United game in 1914, was furious with Edwards’ handling of the club and insisted he resigned.
”It is time you went,” he said, with Edwards seated at the top of the room.
“Don’t wait until the end of the season. Go now. The state of the club is not improving. In fact, it is growing worse year by year. We are no further forward than when Alex Ferguson arrived, and are maybe worse off. The board has doubled in size with no gain in performance. This is the worst state of affairs I can remember in 50 years.”
Ferguson was also present at the meeting and faced a barrage of criticism too.
One fan told him:
‘It is an obscenity to see the state this club is in. There are times when you want to be wrong. But this is not one of them. We have been a laughing stock on the field for some time, and now we are a laughing stock throughout the country, with this off-the-field saga. In the 1960s, this club was on the same level as Liverpool. Look at it now.”
Ferguson, like a guilty schoolboy, merely had to sit there and accept his scolding.
”I realise we are not showing good form, and I don’t exempt myself from criticism”, was what he offered up as a response.
Ferguson celebrates with Les Sealey after United's FA Cup win in 1990. PA
PA
On 7 January, 1990, United faced Nottingham Forest in the Third Round of the FA Cup and Mark Robins’ goal ensured they went through. Later in the month, they beat Hereford and a few days later, held City in the reverse league fixture at Old Trafford. Things began to calm down and, thanks to the cup run, Ferguson and his players had a distraction. In March and April, they won four on the trot in the league and a mid-table finish was effectively confirmed.
In May, United won the FA Cup after a replay against Crystal Palace and it kickstarted a period of sustained success.
In the space of a few months, United had gone from being on the edge of internal and external collapse to the edge of greatness.
It showed Ferguson just how quickly things can change in football. In a modern context, the mind goes back to September 2009 and the build-up to another Manchester derby.
When asked if he could foresee a day when United headed into a clash with their local rivals as underdogs, Ferguson responded, rather deliciously:
“Not in my lifetime.”
It seemed a prescient statement as 48 hours later, Michael Owen scored an injury-time winner and United claimed a memorable 4-3 victory.
But, within three years they were league champions. And, since then, it’s been a period of sustained success, with United as the underdogs.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
29 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
'I went straight home, got into bed, and put the pillow over my head': the Manchester 'slaughter' of 1989
IT WAS THE first time in three years that there had been a Manchester derby at Maine Road owing to City’s relegation from the top-flight in 1987.
The previous edition had seen a 1-1 draw played out, just weeks before Ron Atkinson was sacked as United manager.
For Alex Ferguson, he’d experienced two local clashes prior to September 1989 and won them both. But the third would leave an imprint that would take decades to disappear.
The season had started impressively for United as they thumped four past Arsenal on the opening day. But that wasn’t what made the headlines.
An hour before kick-off, the 47,000 fans in attendance were greeted by the bewildering sight of a moustachioed property tycoon named Michael Knighton – dressed in a United training top, shorts and socks – who ran on to the pitch, juggled a ball at the half-way line and scored a goal at the Stretford End before blowing kisses to fans.
He was the ‘chairman-elect’ of the club, with United’s Martin Edwards keen to sell. Knighton promised big things and bid £10m, telling Edwards he’d invest a further £10m in rebuilding Old Trafford. With a takeover essentially complete, United had invested heavily in new players during the off-season. Gary Pallister was a record signing for a defender. Other big fees were paid to sign Neil Webb, Paul Ince and Danny Wallace.
But the feel-good factor quickly evaporated. Regardless of their impressive opening and expensive recruits, United suffered three straight league defeats – to Crystal Palace, Derby and Norwich and despite some respite in the form of a big home win over Luton, they headed to Maine Road with serious question marks hanging over them and their boss.
They faced a City team that was struggling. Mel Machin’s side had one win from six games and were relying heavily on a group of standout youngsters who had pushed the team to FA Youth Cup success over United three years earlier. The likes of Paul Lake, Ian Brightwell, Andy Hinchcliffe and David White had all stepped up and impressed.
And the quartet were influential as City ran riot.
Knighton was in attendance and gleefully signed autographs beforehand, though United’s subsequently chaotic display would act as the perfect metaphor for what would soon happen behind-the-scenes.
Ferguson’s side never seemed to recover from early crowd trouble that resulted in both teams being escorted off the pitch for 10 minutes.
Pallister was run ragged all afternoon and badly at fault for City’s opener. Wrong-footed, he stretched and missed White’s low cross and David Oldfield swept beyond Jim Leighton.
United were stunned and City smelled blood. Just two minutes later, Mal Donaghy erred on the edge of his own area and though Leighton conjured two excellent saves in quick succession to spare his blushes, another moustachioed figure (it was the 80s) – Trevor Morley – finally forced the ball over the line as it broke free.
Ten minutes before the break, City conjured an exquisite third as Pallister was done by Oldfield in the right channel and when the striker whipped in the cross, Ian Bishop met it perfectly with a diving header.
Bruised and battered, United did muster an eventual response and scored the best goal of the game through Mark Hughes’ spectacular scissors kick five minutes after the restart.
But, City responded again shortly after as the superb Lake raced through and unselfishly squared for Oldfield to tap home. Within minutes, there was a fifth as White curled in a magnificent delivery to the far post and Hinchliffe headed powerfully past Leighton.
Years later, Lake – in his excellent autobiography I’m Not Really Here – described the mood in the City camp directly after the full-time whistle.
The Maine Road crowd had revelled in both the scoreline and how it was sure to affect Ferguson’s prospects of keeping his job.
In the immediate aftermath, he bemoaned the individual errors and stayed away from offering any excuses.
“If you give away silly goals you haven’t got a chance,” he said.
“It’s like trying to climb up a glass mountain.”
But the scars remained for a long time. In his autobiography, Managing My Life, Ferguson admitted to retreating to his house and mulling on the result in the dark.
The impact of such a demoralising result wasn’t just felt by Ferguson either.
Pallister, who had struggled majorly, headed straight for his hometown of Middlesbrough to try and clear his head and spend time with his family.
When he returned to The Cliff for training on Monday morning, he was reminded of just how bad things were at United.
“There was no security and when I walked from the dressing room there were four burly United fans waiting for me outside the door,” he described in his own book years later.
“The funny thing was that we started off really well (in the game), playing lovely football, but then there was trouble behind one of the goals which spilled over to the side of the pitch, and the players were taken off. After that, everything City hit went in. I’d say it was the lowest point of my entire career.”
But United did react well, losing just once in their next seven league games. However, by the start of December, the wheels had completely come off.
Knighton lost his financial backers and the takeover deal, embarrassingly for all invested parties, collapsed. On the field, United went ten league games without a win.
At a shareholders’ meeting in December, the atmosphere was toxic. 80-year-old William Humphreys, who had watched his first United game in 1914, was furious with Edwards’ handling of the club and insisted he resigned.
”It is time you went,” he said, with Edwards seated at the top of the room.
“Don’t wait until the end of the season. Go now. The state of the club is not improving. In fact, it is growing worse year by year. We are no further forward than when Alex Ferguson arrived, and are maybe worse off. The board has doubled in size with no gain in performance. This is the worst state of affairs I can remember in 50 years.”
Ferguson was also present at the meeting and faced a barrage of criticism too.
One fan told him:
Ferguson, like a guilty schoolboy, merely had to sit there and accept his scolding.
”I realise we are not showing good form, and I don’t exempt myself from criticism”, was what he offered up as a response.
On 7 January, 1990, United faced Nottingham Forest in the Third Round of the FA Cup and Mark Robins’ goal ensured they went through. Later in the month, they beat Hereford and a few days later, held City in the reverse league fixture at Old Trafford. Things began to calm down and, thanks to the cup run, Ferguson and his players had a distraction. In March and April, they won four on the trot in the league and a mid-table finish was effectively confirmed.
In May, United won the FA Cup after a replay against Crystal Palace and it kickstarted a period of sustained success.
In the space of a few months, United had gone from being on the edge of internal and external collapse to the edge of greatness.
It showed Ferguson just how quickly things can change in football. In a modern context, the mind goes back to September 2009 and the build-up to another Manchester derby.
When asked if he could foresee a day when United headed into a clash with their local rivals as underdogs, Ferguson responded, rather deliciously:
“Not in my lifetime.”
It seemed a prescient statement as 48 hours later, Michael Owen scored an injury-time winner and United claimed a memorable 4-3 victory.
But, within three years they were league champions. And, since then, it’s been a period of sustained success, with United as the underdogs.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
Pep prepared to rest players for Manchester derby ahead of Liverpool
‘I only spoke with him twice:’ De Bruyne reflects on ‘distant’ relationship with Jose Mourinho
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
derby demolition Maine Road mel machin Michael Knighton Sir Alex Ferguson Manchester City Manchester United