On this day 25 years ago, Mark Robins scored one of BBC Sport's iconic FA Cup goals at Nottingham Forest to save Alex Ferguson's job as manager at Manchester United. In January 1990, a large part of United's supporters wanted Ferguson (the knighthood was another nine years away) out of the club. United had lost at home to Crystal Palace the previous month, prompting a banner in the Stretford End that accused Ferguson of presiding over "three years of excuses" at Old Trafford. Defeat away to an in-form Forest in the FA Cup seemed a distinct possibility - and the rumour was such a result would be Ferguson's last in charge. Whether he would have survived remains one of football's great imponderables because instead Mark Robins nodded in the only goal of the game. United went on to lift the FA Cup, beating Crystal Palace 1-0 in a final replay. It was the first of 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League and two Champions League titles, that followed in Ferguson's glorious 26-year reign. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30709994
Apart from the fact that everyone connected to Utd, past and present, who was involved in that decision has confirmed that he wouldn't have been fired even if Utd had lost..
The whole thing is just media bullshit. Even without considering all the denials from inside the club there was no way Robins' 'saved' SAF's job. The story is always that SAF would have been sacked if we'd lost. But Robins didn't score an equaliser, he scored the winner. Had he not scored, we'd have drawn 0-0. And thus we would not have lost, nor been in any danger of doing so. Would any club ever sack a manager for drawing an away cup game, thus earning a home replay, against one of the best cup teams of that period, managed by one of the best managers of all time? Utter BS. The only player who could be said to have 'saved' SAF that season was Mark Hughes, with his late equaliser against Palace in the final. But he wasn't the 'original fledgling', nor was he sold a couple of years later, so the story isn't as 'romantic' blah blah.
You're probably right Swarbs but people are hardly going to say 'yeah we were about to sack him' are they? What would that make them look like if they admitted to almost sacking a man who went on to become one of the all time greats? What is more likely is that Fergie would not have lasted as long had he took over United in the modern era. Also Robbins scoring a winner may have stopped Forest winning as at 0-0, a United loss was only a goal away. Goals change games and all that.
