Manchester derbies in the 1970s were frequently bad tempered. In the December 1970 derby, a tackle by George Best broke the leg of Glyn Pardoe, the severity of the injury almost resulted in the City defender losing his leg. The following season, an entertaining 3-3 draw saw Francis Lee and George Best accuse each other of diving. The first derby of the 1973/74 season saw Mike Doyle and Lou Macari each receive a red card in a dour contest which finished 0-0. Both players refused to leave the pitch, leading the referee to take both teams back to the dressing room until the two players accepted their dismissals
The return fixture came at Old Trafford on the last day of the season and had high stakes, as United needed to win to stand a chance of avoiding relegation. The first hour of the game was fairly unremarkable, with neither side making much headway. Then in the 81st minute, with the game seemingly headed towards a stalemate, Francis Lee played the ball towards former United player Denis Law, who was standing with his back to goal. Law instinctively back-heeled the ball past goalkeeper Alex Stepney and into the back of the net. As his City teammates went to congratulate him, the stunned Law made his way off the pitch with his head down as he realised the consequences his goal had for his former club. Law later said of the goal: "I have seldom felt so depressed in my life as I did that weekend. After 19 years of giving everything I had to score goals, I had finally scored one which I almost wished I hadn't. Law was immediately substituted, and never played league football again. In the closing minutes of the match United supporters staged a pitch invasion, and the match ended in abandonment. However, the result stood, and United's relegation was confirmed. Results subsequently revealed that United would have been relegated if the match was drawn, but among City supporters the match is still remembered as "the day Denis Law back-heeled United into the Second Division". Happily for United however, they won promotion at the first time of asking in the next season.
In the 1990s United dominated the fixture, going unbeaten in derbies for the full decade, including a 5-0 win in 1994 in which Andrei Kanchelskis scored a hat trick. Since the turn of the decade, the fixture has been more evenly contested, with Utd claiming 5 League victories, and one Fa Cup win, and City claiming 4 as of August 2007.
The first Old Trafford derby of the new millennium saw the culmination of a long standing feud between Roy keane and Alf Inga Haarland. The feud started in 1998, when United captain Keane suffered a cruciate ligament injury when clean through on goal, being chased down by Haaland (then playing for Leeds, a team that also have an unpleasant rivalry with United). As Keane lay on the ground, Haaland accused him of feigning injury. Three years later, in the derby match of April 2001, Haaland was the City captain. Late in the game Keane made a knee height tackle on Haaland, for which he received a red card. In his autobiography, published in 2002, Keane admitted that the challenge was a premeditated attempt to injure, an admission which resulted in a £150,000 fine and a five match ban. Subsequent to the incident Haaland had a long struggle with knee problems and retired in 2002. Haaland initially stated that his injury problems were not related to the challenge, but later received medical advice which suggested the challenge aggravated an earlier injury.
Keane v Haarland
City won both the last derby match at Maine Road and the first derby match at their new stadium.
Manchester City fans commonly refer to Manchester United as not being from Manchester. Although it is true that United's ground is actually in Trafford, Manchester United were in fact formed in Clayton, which is in Manchester.
What's the difference between Manchester United and Manchester City?
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Kind of speaks for itself really.
Quote from manutdzone
"Once a highlight of British football, the
rivalry of Manchester's two teams in the 1990s became
ludicrously one-sided as United won everything in sight and City
plummeted to the old Second Division. United made a mockery of
the phrase "Anything can happen in a derby game", with the
consistent stuffing of City on every occasion the teams met.
City's return to the top flight has not altered the fact they
are still MASSIVE underdogs when the two teams meet.
It's always a good occasion for Manchester on derby day but it's
nothing like the occasion it once was in previous decades. It
may surprise you to know that from the 1920's to late 1950's
many people in Manchester would often support both clubs and
attend games at both Old Trafford and Maine Road. Travel to away
games was too expensive so fans made up for it by watching
both!!!
City weren't always total rubbish though. In the 1930's City won
the League and FA Cup whilst United were relegated. However the
1937 League triumph is notable for the fact that City became the
only team in football history to be Champions one season and get
relegated the following season, in 1938!!!
In the 1970's the sky blues were sometimes title challengers
while United plumbed the murky depths of under-achievement. In
1968 on the final day of the season City pipped United to the
League title - but the television and media virtually ignored it
as United's European Cup final was the next week. The City fans
bitterness at being overlooked by the press forms a long history
of being overshadowed, thus they are known by United fans as
"The bitter blues". No matter what City did everybody was always
more interested in the more exciting, glamorous rivals in red.
Man City are Manchester's second team by a long way, in fact
Bolton could claim to be United's biggest Mancunian rivals. In
countries like Italy, France and Spain, United are usually
referred to as simply "Manchester", they are the only team
foreigners recognise who come from the city. If you asked them
about Man City they wouldn't have a monkeys. Contrary to their
fans belief City are not a massive club, I mean, if they're
massive what does that make United, Barcelona and co?
City fans always go on about how they are Manchester's true team
and no United fans come from Manchester, however the one
million+ people that filled the city's streets to see United's
treble winners homecoming, shoots that argument down. Truth is,
most people you ever meet who come from Manchester support
UNITED not City.
City fans slag United off by calling us the "rags" - an ever so
slightly outdated term from the 1930's when United had no money
and were in financial trouble. Manchester United fans have their
own slang term for City fan's - "Bertie Magoo, Bitter Blue".
Their old stadium, Maine Road was just like the team - a badly
thought out mess. It was known by United fans as "Theatre of
Comedy". City fans used to boast it had the tallest floodlights
in Britain!!! This obsession with height meant the daft Kippax
Stand built in 1996 was also the tallest stand in the UK (for a
while) yet it somehow held only 11,000 seats - less than half
the Old Trafford North Stand.
Fittingly City's last ever game at Maine Road was a 1-0 defeat
to Southampton with Michael Svensson scoring the stadium's last
goal. In 2003 Reds were quick to christen the City of Manchester
Stadium with the title "The Council house" given that City are
renting it off Manchester City Council in a long term hire
purchase agreement.
It also features a stand named after their most cherished hero
Colin Bell (Who? Exactly!!!!) and has since been declared as
"The Bell-End". Many bluenose's still to this day genuinely, in
all honesty, believe "King of the Kippax" Bell was a better
player than......George Best!!!!!
But even in this brand new home the problems of old have
followed the club like a bad smell as Kevin Keegan led the club
into debt ridden underachievement and Stuart Pearce has done
even worse. It's now a massive 31 years since City's last
trophy, the 1976 League Cup - here's a toast to another glorious
31 years!!!!
It must be hard to cope being a City fan, most live in denial,
cursing the mighty Red's exploits at every opportunity and never
missing a chance to sing songs about the Munich Air Disaster
(even though the crash also claimed the life of ex-City hero
Frank Swift). United fans don't hate City as much as they used
to, we're bigger than that and have bigger fish to fry.
Manchester City are a joke, and lets face it, who doesn't enjoy
a good laugh?"