30 Years Ago today – On 23 September 1989 Manchester City thrashed Manchester United at Maine Road in a famous derby game.
To understand the real significance of this result to the long suffering Manchester City fans you have to go back in time. For these days beating Manchester United is not such a rare occurrence, in fact such has the swing been in terms of football dominance that we are now expected to win derby games.
Back in 1989 things were different. Black Box were number one in the Singles Charts, back when Singles were made of Vinyl and had to be bought from a record shop. John Craven had just presented his last ever episode of Newsround and it was barely a month since Martin Edwards, Chairman of Manchester United, had agreed to sell the club to Michael Knighton for £10 million.
In the previous 25 years, despite plenty of League meetings between the two Manchester clubs, City had a fairly dismal record. They had only beaten United 3 times in the League in the 25 year period, and whilst United in 1989 were not the dominant force they were about to become – they were sat at the edge of that development into a behemoth.
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Nevertheless, City took apart Manchester United in a famous victory at Maine Road. And it was a truly beautiful experience.
Back in 1989 Manchester United had assembled an expensive squad in their quest for glory. Gary Pallister had been signed to shore up their defence and was the most expensive British player ever at this point. During the match his defending was taken apart by David Oldfield.
Going into this game little City had just been promoted with a team consisting of many young players and headed into this match with only one win so far this season. The media generally did not give City a chance against their big spending neighbours and everyone was set up for another defeat.
Beating United at this stage had kind of been consigned to the history books. The last victory had been back in 1981 when City, managed by John Bond, won by a solitary goal. But of course us supporters lived in hope.
This was the era of the inflatable banana and the Maine Road crowd was packed to the rafters for the match. Prior to kick off there was some trouble between the fans as many United fans had somehow got tickets in the North Stand and the game was delayed as the Police sorted it out.
The first goal came like so many of our goals at the time from the left back play by Andy Hinchcliffe who passed to David White who released David Oldfield to score. City fans celebrated and the United fans started to shuffle in their seats.
A scrappy second goal really unleashed the City fans in celebration. Trevor Morley scored the rebound after Paul Lake’s shot was saved. We were in uncharted territory here but things were about to get even better.
This time a whipped cross from Oldfield was met by a diving header from Ian Bishop. A beautiful goal and City were unbelievably 3:0 up at half time. I should make the point that this was not because United had sat down and failed to play but rather they were being outplayed by a youthful exuberance.
After the restart Mark Hughes netted from a bicycle kick to claw one back and the City fans started to worry. But they need not have bothered. For City were about to really put them to the sword.
The fourth goal was pretty much all Paul Lake. His initial shot was saved, but he picked up the rebound and pulled the ball back for Oldfield to smash the ball into the net.
In a game of so many wonderful goals and great play by City it is the fifth goal I always remember most clearly. The superb Ian Bishop launched a pass from the centre circle to the right wing where David White whipped in a first time cross which was met by the onrushing Andy Hinchcliffe with a powerful header to seal the rout.
This was the best I had ever seen City play and I left the Kippax Stand that day on a high of emotion, believing anything was possible given the beautiful football I had witnessed. Of course, like many things in life it did not quite turn out like that!
City would not win another League derby game until 9 November 2002 when they secured a famous 3:1 victory thanks to goals from Nicolas Anelka and a brace from Shaun Goater. In between there was a period of total dominance of English football by Manchester United.
Luckily, the boys in blue have now stemmed that tide and sit at the head of the League themselves. But all City fans of a certain age still look back at that derby victory on 23 September 1989 – some 30 years ago – where the unexpected happened and beautiful football secured a deserved 5-1 victory.
For on 23 September 1989 I saw the best game of football I had ever seen in my life. At least until 23 October 2011, but that is a different story.