September 23 – Blue Moon
WHETHER we are to believe some of the battle cries and hasty announcements coming from Manchester City’s new owners about paying a gazillion pounds for everyone from Cesc Fabregas to a job lot of Ronaldos, it seems things finally may be looking up for the Citizens who for years have had to play the part of perennial underdog to their nearest neighbours.
For years City fans have only the had the crumbs of derby wins over Man United to feed on, while the Red Devils feast at the table of trophies and titles.
Today in 1989 was one of the sweetest for the Maine Road faithful, when they well and truly stuffed their rivals in a derby match still talked about to this day.
At the time, neither club had all that much to crow about: City were newly promoted and had managed just one League win all season and had been knocked out of the League Cup by Brentford in midweek.
United meanwhile were having a bit of a crisis of their own. Fergie had been in the top job for three years but had yet to win anything, despite splashing out millions on a host of new players.
Ferguson was under big pressure to deliver that season, and a derby win over his struggling cross-town rivals would have been just the tonic to a faltering season.
The game had barely got underway when the referee had to stop play while a group of United fans were herded out of a supposedly City only enclosure, but it didn’t take long for the action on the pitch to take centre stage.
David Oldfield opened the scoring for City, before Trevor Morley and Ian Bishop added two more to make it 3-0 to City at the break.
Oldfield added another, with Andy Hinchcliffe rounding off the scoring for City, with Mark Hughes getting a spectacular consolation for United. It was rout and Reds boss Ferguson left the field to chants of “Fergie Out”.
Ferguson recalled afterwards: “By late September our form had been inconsistent and we chose the worst possible day to reach rock-bottom.
“We were slaughtered 5-1 at Maine Road in the most embarrassing defeat of my management career.
“After the game I went straight home, got into bed and put the pillow over my head.”
It did get better for Fergie though, as he picked up his first trophy as United boss later that season when they won the FA Cup.
Click here for a little round-up of the game, and check this one time to see what else happened on this day in football history.
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September 23 - Blue Moon and The Reds Score a Hat-full | On This Football Day on September 24th, 2009
[...] An incendiary Manc derby and a rampant Liverpool set the scene for today’s footy history round-up. 1989 – Blue Moon [...]