I Don't Hate Liverpool ........

I have an admission to make. I do not hate and have never hated Liverpool Football Club. Most probably because I just don't seem to think about them to be honest. I do not hate them simply because I have never been in fear of or intimidated by the institution/propaganda machine of Liverpool, the second most successful club in England for the past 20 years !!! I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who wrote that ‘Hatred is the cowards revenge for being intimidated,’ and for the last ten years since I followed United I have failed to subscribe to the hype from down the other end of the M62.

I have been amused and bemused by Liverpool’s obsession and hatred of all things Manchester United - but never have I been intimidated ! This enmity of course is based on success and which club is the biggest, most famous, most successful. Well I can answer that quite easily. Manchester United have the biggest ground, Manchester United have the biggest turnover, Manchester United have the better players and for the past 20 years Manchester United have had by far the most success - for someone who does not know who the best club has been for the past 20 years you’d have to ask an Eskimo which club is the most famous! It’s reminiscent of two heavy-weights slugging it out on the ropes looking for the knockout punch that never comes and the referee declares a draw.

This bitterness and rancour is purely a modern phenomenon. When it comes to football however both clubs are remarkably similar. Both have been touched by tragedies. Both were built up by Scots from mining stock that fashioned their respective clubs in their image. Their legacy can still be felt in the corridors of both stadiums! Bill Shankly and Matt Busby both have statues erected in their honour and you can feel them watching over the empires they built, like guardian angels! Liverpool fans perception is that the media has never given their achievements the credit they deserve whereas United success since the 90’s has been totally overstated. The ‘theatre of dreams’ tag and the Hollywood style film premiere of ‘Beyond the Promised Land’ about the 1999 season being two examples of brilliant marketing used by United that Liverpool failed to utilise in their time at the top !

……….and who can they blame but themselves ???

No I don’t hate Liverpool because they certainly don’t intimidate me - or SAF - or any Manchester United player or staff member………

I actually feel sorry for them these days because it must be so hard to sit in the shadows of Manchester United for 20 years and win a handful of trophies while United stack them higher and higher.....Back To Home Page

Manchester United Trivia - The More We All Know The Better

I've been rummaging through my United books again.
I have all the stats books and the facts and figures of
this, that and the other, I follow it all.

Who scored six goals in one game for us on 7th Feb 1970 in an
8-2 win over Northampton Town in the FA Cup 5th Round ?
That's easy, George Best, but he's not alone. I thought Georgie
was the only one, but on 25th Sep 1911, whilst playing in the
Charity Shield against Swindon at Stamford Bridge, Harold Halse
also scored six !!

Five in a game is easy. 4th Mar 1995 in the FA Premiership, playing
Ipswich Town in a 9-0 victory Mr Andrew Cole scored 5 ! Scoring 5
in one game and winning 9-0 are both Premiership records too by
the way. But once again, he's not alone. On 12th Feb 1949, in the FA
Cup 5th round versus Yeovil Town, Jack Rowley scored five too !!

The scoring of 4 goals in a game is far too easy, I mean 54 people have
done that for goodness sake, boring !! Well ... not if you bang them all
in within 12 minutes of coming off the bench ! As 20legend did. He
bagged his 4 and United scored a further four for an 8-1 away win at
Forest, the fastest four goals ever scored and the record win in the
Premiership, away from home !! Another game where they set two
records, that must be a record too, surely, or am I being greedy here ?

Our top five record victories, every fan should know this if they wish
to appear genuine !

10-0 v Anderlecht, EC Cup Prelim 2nd leg, 26 Sep 56 at Maine Road in
front of 40,000.
10-1 v Wolves, Division 2, 15 Oct 1892 at North Road in front of 4,000.
9-0 v Walsall, Division 2, 3 Apr 1895 at Bank Street in front of 6,000.
9-0 v Darwen, Division 2, 24 Dec 1898 at Bank Street in front of 2,000.
9-0 v Ipswich, FA Premiership, 4 Mar 1995 at Old Trafford in front of
43,806.

And don't you forget it - Grrrrrrrrrrrr ... !!

Now I'm always fair, so if we have the top 5 victories, then yes, you got
it, we better have the top 5 defeats ... and the 5th one is a nightmare !!
So, ahem, to be fair, here we go ...

0-7 v Blackburn, Division 1, 10 Apr 1926 at Ewood Park in front of 15,870.
0-7 v Villa, Division 1, 27 Dec 1930 at Villa Park in front of 32,505.
0-7 v Wolves, Division 2, 26 Dec 1931 at Molineux in front of 37,207.
1-7 v Stoke, Division 2, 7 Jan 1893 at the Victoria Ground in front of 10,000.
1-7 v Liverpool (Aarrgghhhhhhhhh !!), 12 Oct 1895 at Anfailed in front of 7,000.

So, there we go, all is fair here.

July is the only month where United have never played a competitive
game. I would have said June too ... but no, apparently not. On 6 Jun
1965 in the NEP Stedion, we played Ferencvaros in the Fairs Cup Semi
Final play off and lost 1-0. Then on 16 Jun 1965 in the NEP Stedion, we
played Ferencvaros again in the 2nd leg of the match (both legs away
from home ?) and we lost 2-1, both with crowds of 60,000. My advice
- don't play in June, we've never won or drawn a game !! Played 2,
lost 2, for 1 against 3.


April is our busiest month since United were born. We've played 680
times winning 320, drawing 164 with 196 defeats. We scored 1126
times and let in 804. Pretty good huh ? I could give you the figures for
every month but you would never come back it would be so boring. I'll
tell you that overall, we have played a grand total of 5049 games winning
2424 times and drawing 1214 with 1411 defeats. We scored 8755 and
let in 6334.

Home and away league doubles are always satisfying, especially
against the Bindippers.

We've done the double over the Scousers a total of ten times !! But it
gets better, we can rub it in real bad now. Five of the ten have come
in the 16 years since the birth of the Premier League but wait !!! It
gets better ... 3 have come in the last 4 years and four have come in
the last 6 years !!! Oh yes Scouser, we got your boys whooped pretty
bad !!

What about the all-time top substitute ? He came off the bench 84
times in the Prem and scored 16 times. He also came on 15 times in the
FA Cup for 3 goals. In the League Cup 3 times and 1 goal. Check this
out !! In the Champions League, 45 times and 8 goals !! Giving a grand
total of 150 appearances as sub for 28 goals, one of which arrived with
a rather famous phrase .....AND SOLSKJAER HAS WON IT !!!! Enough
said, Ole a real legend !!

The top scorers in Europe surprised me ! Well, RVN top of the list is no
surprise on 38 goals. But two of Sir Matts guys are still there. One in
second still ... Denis Law with 28 !! Giggsy in 3rd on 25 with Scholes two
back on 23 and Bobby Charlton still fifth on 22.

Top scorers in the Premiership has really closed up now with 5 goals
covering the top 5. We now have joint leaders on 96, Giggs and Scholes
again. Third is RVN on 95, two back to Cole on 93 and a further 2 more
back is ........... Ole Gunnar !!! The Slave is 25 further back, but I think
he is capable of closing that gap quite a bit before joining City for £600
trillion next season !!

We have 451 wins by a score of 1-0. 381 at 2-0 and 234 for 3-0. 106
times we have scraped home 4-0 and 60 times by 5-0. 6-0 is a mere 19
ocassions with 8 at 7-0, 1 at 8-0, and surprisingly 9-0 three times with
a single 10-0.

2-1 victories come in at 385, 3-1 is 254, 4-1 is 117 and 5-1 57 times, uh ?
Then there are 26 6-1 wins with 7 at 7-1, 2 more at 8-1 and a nice 10-1.

What about 3-2 ? 159, 4-2 is 60 and 5-2 has turned up 31 times. 6-2 is
rare, surely, well 13 times for us 7-2 on 5 days and 8-2 just the once !

Conceding 3 goals and winning is possible. 20 times we did it 4-3, 5-3 is
14 ocassions including being 3-0 down at HT and winning 5-3 v Spurs.
We also have 4 wins of 6-3.

How about conceding 4 goals and winning ? Well, we can do that too.......
5-4, 6-4 and 8-4 once each. Surely no one has ever conceded 5 and won ?
We did, v Chelsea in one of the all time great matches.

I'll maybe cover that in my trivia rush. Now be sure to memorise all this
as I WILL be asking questions Muahahahaha .......