MANCHESTER UNITED 1 CITY 0
FA Cup 3rd Round
10th January 1987
Attendance 54,294
Scorer Whiteside(64)
Ref B Hill
City Suckling, Gidman, Wilson, Clements, McCarthy, Redmond, White, McNab, Varadi, Grealish, Simpson – subs Baker(75), I Brightwell(85)
United Turner, Sivebaek, C Gibson, Whiteside, Garton, Moran, Duxbury, Strachan, Stapleton, Davenport, Olsen – subs T Gibson(67), O’Brien(unused)
JIMMY FRIZZELL WRITING IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 17TH JANUARY 1987
A perfectly good ’goal’, in our opinion, from Imre Varadi was disallowed by the referee, Brian Hill, either for ‘pushing’, ‘offside’ or ‘handball’, depending which story you believe. But after watching the recorded highlights on TV I was more convinced than ever that there was no reason why the goal shouldn’t have been allowed to stand.
Also, we didn’t get a penalty kick for what I saw as a deliberate push on Kenny Clements earlier in the second half. Unfortunately, this incident wasn’t even shown on TV. In fact, to be quite honest, it looked from the T.V. highlights as if it was one-way traffic in United’s favour, and that wasn’t the case. I felt we had the better of the first half, though United certainly saw more of the ball and had more pressure in the second.
It is very disappointing when there are many Manchester City fans watching who may not have been to see us for a while and are not going to be encouraged to come back from what appears on their screens.
This is important because we are trying to attract more people to Maine Road, rather than just hold on to the loyal support we have already.
Losing at Old Trafford cost this club a great deal of money, the revenue from a replay and the possibility of progress along the road to Wembley. It is even more frustrating now the draw for the fourth round has given United a home tie against Coventry City which was being considered, earlier in the week, for the ’live TV match.
There will always be human error and a mistake by one or our young players, Stevie Redmond, led to Norman Whiteside’s goal at Old Trafford. I would not condemn the lad for that because I’ve made enough mistakes myself. And no one could have been more upset than Stevie. It is just a shame that mistakes, and I still believe the referee made two, should prove so costly to Manchester City in such a big game.
On the day, some of our younger players didn’t do as well as they have been doing. David White and Paul Simpson were not very effective but United’s full backs clamped down on them. Even so, it was good experience for all the kids.
Ian Brightwell got a bit lost when he went on for the closing stages and maybe that was my fault. It was a bit of a desperate move to try to snatch a draw and maybe I didn’t give the lad clear instructions what I wanted him to do.
But the FA Cup is behind us for another year. I’m sorry if we diasappointed all you City fans who gave us such tremendous support at Old Trafford. But stick with us. Like I said earlier, they’re all cup ties from now on!