First United team you remember watching

dcrompton

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With no football to discuss it's time to get nostalgic. So from memory, what is the first United team and subs bench you remember watching. The first United game I remember was the 1985 cup final but 1990 was the year I started playing football and really getting into watching United, specifically the 1990 FA Cup run and the replays in the semis and the final v Oldham and Crystal Palace after 3-3 draws. The team I remember is below, and in the playground I was always Robson (until we signed Cantona)
--------------------1.Leighton / Sealey (from 90 FA cup replay on)
2.Irwin 4. Bruce 6.Pallister 3.Blackmore
5.Phelan 7.Robson(c) 8.Ince 11.Wallace
--------------9.McClair 10.Hughes
Subs. Martin, Webb, Sharpe, Robins

So what's your first United team from memory?
 

Ali Dia

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The fa cup final and replay in 1990 when I was 6 is my first proper memory of supporting united. Italia 90 got me properly into football following Jack Charltons Irish team and my grandfather and best friends family supported united so I had no choice really! My uncle who used to look after me a bit was always trying to get me to change to Liverpool but I have to say it was always United for me. What can I say I had good taste even back then : )
 

V.O.

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I definitely would have been supporting United before then, but the first game I vividly remember watching in full would have been the 1998 CL quarter final first leg away to a Monaco side that featured Barthez and Henry. The squad would have been largely the same as the '99 treble winners.

It finished 0-0 (ultimately going out on away goals after the second leg was 1-1) and United were playing in blue :lol:
 

SirAF

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Schmeichel

Neville
Pallister
Johnsen
Irwin

Becks
Scholes
Butt (Keano injured that year)
Giggs

Cole
Solskjaer

ish
 

sully07

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First match attended age 13

Alex Stepney

Martin Buchan
Stewart Houston
Jimmy Nicholl
Brian Greenhoff
Steve Coppell
Gordon Hill
Sammy McIlroy
Jimmy Greenhoff
Lou Macari
Pancho Pearson
 

Tomuś

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96/97 United 4-0 Porto. I was 7 back then. Immediately fell in love. I remember the quick wing-play, Giggs catching impossible balls near the touch line, Cantona magic as well as aggression in the middle of the park. And our goals.

The funny thing is, until only three years ago, I was adamant the score was 4-2 and the game was against Deportivo. I started researching our European games from that season and found out we never played Depor that year. Checked the goals vs Porto and the memories came back.

My next vivid recollection was 1998/1999 UCL campaign (Premier League was virtually impossible to follow here back then). I guess there were no United UCL games in the 97/98 season on Polish TV, too.
 

Maticmaker

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I attended at least one match prior to the Munich disaster, I was only nine years old, so don't remember too much, think we won 3-2 against Wolves.
Tried to get in for the Sheffield Wednesday 3rd Rd FA Cup at OT got within half a mile of the ground, then it was solid and the Police turned us back. First match I really remember (post Munich) was beating Blackburn Rovers 6-1 at OT Denis Violet scored twice, it was snowing through most of the match, probably in the early 1960's
First European Cup Match was against Real Madrid, at OT think the result was 2-2.
First semi-final FA Cup was 1975/76 (think) first year back in first Division under The Doc, we won 2-0 against Derby Country at Hillsborough (cheeky-chappy) Gordon Hill scored both goals,.
First Cup Final (FA) v Southampton same year 0-1 loss was the biggest shock to my system.

Most remembered moment (apart from last five minutes of the 2-1 result against Bayern to clinch the treble), was watching 'Chopper' Harris of Chelsea desperately chasing George Best from the halfway line and trying to take him down, three times, without success. The crowd roared every time he tried, Best was like a bull fighter teasing the bull with his cape!
 

dcrompton

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First match attended age 13

Alex Stepney

Martin Buchan
Stewart Houston
Jimmy Nicholl
Brian Greenhoff
Steve Coppell
Gordon Hill
Sammy McIlroy
Jimmy Greenhoff
Lou Macari
Pancho Pearson
My dad had a season ticket the year they were relegated and his favourite team was the one that got promotion the next year which I think is this team?
 

diarm

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94 FA Cup final against Chelsea. We won 4-0 with Cantona getting a couple of penalties and I think a goal each for Ince and McClair.

Complete guess at the exact team:

Schmeichel
Parker Bruce Pallister Irwin
Kanchelskis Ince Keane Giggs
McClair
Cantona​
 

Class of 63

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LASK 0 Manchester United 5

Romero
Williams Bailly Maguire Shaw
McTominay Fred
Mata 1 Fernandes James 1
Ighalo 1

Chong
Pereira
1
Greenwood 1
De Gea
Lindelof
Matic
Tuanzebe

Attendance N/A


My very first United match, and i've been one of the clubs biggest fans ever since.


 

dcrompton

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94 FA Cup final against Chelsea. We won 4-0 with Cantona getting a couple of penalties and I think a goal each for Ince and McClair.

Complete guess at the exact team:

Schmeichel
Parker Bruce Pallister Irwin
Kanchelskis Ince Keane Giggs
McClair
Cantona​
Almost, Hughes started and scored and McClair came on a scored a tap-in from a mazy Ince run
 

Crustanoid

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First game I watched. 85 cup final.

When I started watching regularly it was something like:

Turner (Bailey always crocked)
Sivebaek
Moran (McGrath always crocked)
Hogg
Blackmore (sometimes Albiston)
Strachan
Robson / Moses
Whiteside
Colin Gibson
Olsen
Davenport
We were crap and in the relegation zone (City too and they got relegated I think).

Then Big Ron got sacked, SAF turned up and pulled it round to finish 11th
 

arnie_ni

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Born in 1990 but my first memory is cantona. I remember always wearing my collar up like him. I actually can't remember many specific matches etc but just him the man, how he looked.

Remember wee bits of 96/7, wee bit more of 97/8 and 98/99 i remember a lot of. Even where i was watching games and my reactions etc.
 

diarm

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Almost, Hughes started and scored and McClair came on a scored a tap-in from a mazy Ince run
I'll take that! Some quarter of a century later!

My next proper memory of a full game is the Italy match a couple of months later when Ray Houghton scored the winner!
 

macheda14

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I definitely watched football before then, but the first game I really have etched in my memory is Arsenal - United 2-4 at Highbury. I think I was about 10 at the time and was just in love with everything about that team.
 

Spaghetti

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I remember “losing” the league in 91-92 and the next season was the first one where I really got into it. Good timing on one hand, but never really shook off the “glory hunter” tag.
 

Denis' cuff

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Gregg
D unne
Cantwell
Stiles
Foulkes
Setters
Giles
Quixall
Herd
Law
Charlton

went before then but too young to remember
 

poleglass red

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I'd watched them beforehand but the match that really vividly stands out from my childhood was the cup final v Everton were Whiteside scored. I was young and I remembered that as soon as the whistle went everyone in my street and neigbouring streets ran out to their cars and started beeping their horns celebrating.
 

marukomu

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First match attended age 13

Alex Stepney

Martin Buchan
Stewart Houston
Jimmy Nicholl
Brian Greenhoff
Steve Coppell
Gordon Hill
Sammy McIlroy
Jimmy Greenhoff
Lou Macari
Pancho Pearson
This mainly, although I also remember Jim Holton.
 

Eckers99

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The 1985 FA final when our local boy Norman Whiteside curled the winning goal around Neville the walrus Southall.
Same here, mate. Robson, Hughes, Whiteside, McGrath, Strachan and Gary Bailey's flowing blonde locks. That was a great side, which should've achieved more really.
 

Full bodied red

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Gregg
D unne
Cantwell
Stiles
Foulkes
Setters
Giles
Quixall
Herd
Law
Charlton

went before then but too young to remember

I always remember - say it rhythmically...

Gregg
Foulkes
Carolan

Goodwin
Cope
Mcguiness

Bradley
Quixall
Violet
Charlton
Scanlon

Probably 60-61 season ??

My Father used to tell me that the first match he ever took me to was November 1956 and we beat Wolves 3-0 but I don't remember anything at all about going so maybe it was my cousin who he took that day.

First match I can remember going to but can't remember anything about it other than being overwhelmed and more than a little bit frightened by the atmosphere and noise inside OT was Easter 1957 v Sunderland. The internet tells me we beat Burnley away on Easter Friday 3-1, beat Sunderland at home the next day, Easter Saturday, 4-0, and then beat Burnley at home Easter Monday 2-0.

So I saw The Babes but, sadly, have absolutely no memory / recollection of the match and players that day -

Woods
Foulkes
Byrne
Whelan
Edwards
Coleman
Blanchflower
Pegg
Charlton
Berry
Taylor

Strangely, I've never seen film of Duncan Edwards playing either. Anyone have a link to one ??
 

DoctorDark

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First game I was taken to was Wolves at home. I believe we won 2-0 but can’t recall who scored.

Team, as far as I can remember

Pat Dunne

Tony Dunne
Shay Brennan

Pat Crerand
Bill Foulkes
Nobby Stiles

John Connelly
David Herd
Bobby Charlton
Denis Law
George Best

No wonder I was hooked
 

Jippy

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94 FA Cup final against Chelsea. We won 4-0 with Cantona getting a couple of penalties and I think a goal each for Ince and McClair.

Complete guess at the exact team:

Schmeichel
Parker Bruce Pallister Irwin
Kanchelskis Ince Keane Giggs
McClair
Cantona​
That midfield was immense. My fave has to be with Beckham and Scholes in, but that earlier incarnation had such pace and power.
 

simplyared

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1960:
1 Harry Gregg
2 Shay Brennan
3 Noel Cantwell
4 Nobby Stiles
5 Bill Foulkes
6 Maurice Setters
7 Johnny Giles
8 Denis Viollet
9 Alex Dawson
10 Albert Quixall
11 Bobby Charlton
 

Denis' cuff

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I always remember - say it rhythmically...

Gregg
Foulkes
Carolan

Goodwin
Cope
Mcguiness

Bradley
Quixall
Violet
Charlton
Scanlon

Probably 60-61 season ??

My Father used to tell me that the first match he ever took me to was November 1956 and we beat Wolves 3-0 but I don't remember anything at all about going so maybe it was my cousin who he took that day.

First match I can remember going to but can't remember anything about it other than being overwhelmed and more than a little bit frightened by the atmosphere and noise inside OT was Easter 1957 v Sunderland. The internet tells me we beat Burnley away on Easter Friday 3-1, beat Sunderland at home the next day, Easter Saturday, 4-0, and then beat Burnley at home Easter Monday 2-0.

So I saw The Babes but, sadly, have absolutely no memory / recollection of the match and players that day -

Woods
Foulkes
Byrne
Whelan
Edwards
Coleman
Blanchflower
Pegg
Charlton
Berry
Taylor

Strangely, I've never seen film of Duncan Edwards playing either. Anyone have a link to one ??

Similar to me but I never saw the babes.

The old fella reckons my first match was in ‘59, vs Blackpool. Don’t remember it.

First I do remember was vs Wolves. Played in the fog. Maybe 60/ 61? But I’d been to a few by then anyway. Always used to go in the ”popular side” which became United Rd. People often used to sit up in the roof rafters.

i was really generalising with the team I made but the one that really rolls off the tongue were the 63 cup winners. Always bugged me that Gaskell played instead of Gregg because the old fella had told me of his heroics and I had one of those little “Star” badges of him. Stretford End had that song for him, to the tune of ”Allouette”/Alka Seltzer ad. Vaguely remember players like Ernie Taylor and Freddie Goodwin etc but once Denis arrived we were transformed. It was like the whole team was lifted from the post Munich gloom by his infectious personality.The Cantona (dare i say “Fernandes effect”) effect but with the original King.
 

John Keiler

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First actual game FA Cup Final v Leicester City - 25/5/63.

A neighbour of ours told my Dad that his son had just got mumps and could not go down to Wembley with him for the final. He had noticed that I was football mad and asked him if it was OK for me to take the lads place. The 60's were a bit more laissez - faire and my father was happy to let his 6 year old son toddle off to Wembley with a relative stranger! The drive down from Leeds seemed to take hours and we parked outside the stadium :). Not a brilliant game and Leicester were all over us in the first 20 minutes and Gaskell was absolute rubbish. Then the King scored and my love affair started, both with the man himself and the club.
On my 50th birthday, my wife [who hates football and had no idea about this story] presented me with a gift that was obviously a picture of something. Suspecting it was another Picasso or Dali print I was amazed on unwrapping it, that it contained a '63 Cup Final commemorative shirt signed by Dennis himself. I will freely admit I broke down in tears.

Gaskell
Dunne
Cantwell
Crerand
Foulkes
Setters
Giles
Quixall
Herd
Charlton
Law

First league game v WBA - 14/9/63.

After the final this was the first game that my neighbour could take me to in the league. Scrappy game, but a certain young man made his debut, and the rest as they say, is history.

Gregg
Dunne
Cantwell
Crerand
Foulkes
Setters
Best
Stiles
Sadler
Chisnall
Charlton
 

Pat_Mustard

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A never-nude? I thought he just liked cut-offs.
I always remember - say it rhythmically...

Gregg
Foulkes
Carolan

Goodwin
Cope
Mcguiness

Bradley
Quixall
Violet
Charlton
Scanlon

Probably 60-61 season ??

My Father used to tell me that the first match he ever took me to was November 1956 and we beat Wolves 3-0 but I don't remember anything at all about going so maybe it was my cousin who he took that day.

First match I can remember going to but can't remember anything about it other than being overwhelmed and more than a little bit frightened by the atmosphere and noise inside OT was Easter 1957 v Sunderland. The internet tells me we beat Burnley away on Easter Friday 3-1, beat Sunderland at home the next day, Easter Saturday, 4-0, and then beat Burnley at home Easter Monday 2-0.

So I saw The Babes but, sadly, have absolutely no memory / recollection of the match and players that day -

Woods
Foulkes
Byrne
Whelan
Edwards
Coleman
Blanchflower
Pegg
Charlton
Berry
Taylor

Strangely, I've never seen film of Duncan Edwards playing either. Anyone have a link to one ??
I think this is still the only full match featuring Edwards online, sadly:


Some good snippets of footage in this lovely tribute as well:

 

Nikelesh Reddy

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The first United game that I ever saw was a 0-3 defeat to Chelsea at home!!This was in the middle of the 01/02 season...Jimmy floyd hasselbaink and Gudjohnsen got the goals....So my first season as a supporter was 01/02....
 

rcoobc

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The fa cup final and replay in 1990 when I was 6 is my first proper memory of supporting united. Italia 90 got me properly into football following Jack Charltons Irish team and my grandfather and best friends family supported united so I had no choice really! My uncle who used to look after me a bit was always trying to get me to change to Liverpool but I have to say it was always United for me. What can I say I had good taste even back then : )
FA Cup Final in 1996 is he first Man Utd match I remember. I was also 6.


I then couldn't understand why Man Utd didnt just smash the ball in like that every match.

The next match i remember is this one (not Man Utd)


I remember England AND Scotland were going to qualify as England were winning 4-0 and Scotland 1-0. Until Kluivert scored meaning England OR Scotland needed to score again for Scotland to qualify. Useless Scots didnt manage it, but I felt like England let them down.
 

2 man midfield

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————————Barthez——————
Neville-Ferdinand-Blanc-Silvestre
—————Veron——-Keane————
Beckham——-Scholes———-Giggs
—————--Van Nistelrooy————-

Something like this. Remember parts of the 01-02 season, but the 2003 season is the first full campaign I remember being invested in. RVN was a goal machine that year, and Scholes also got like 20 playing just behind him.
 

fezzerUTD

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FA Cup Final in 1996 is he first Man Utd match I remember. I was also 6.


I then couldn't understand why Man Utd didnt just smash the ball in like that every match.

The next match i remember is this one (not Man Utd)


I remember England AND Scotland were going to qualify as England were winning 4-0 and Scotland 1-0. Until Kluivert scored meaning England OR Scotland needed to score again for Scotland to qualify. Useless Scots didnt manage it, but I felt like England let them down.
Same as this was a great first year of football 96.
 

Berbaclass

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The first full game I remember properly was this, I was 9 I think.


I did go to Cardiff to see the Worthington Cup final (when it was that) when we lost 2-1 to Liverpool and watched football all the time but I have an awful memory from when I was a kid and the Arsenal match was the one I can properly remember.
 

FrankDrebin

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The first full game I remember properly was this, I was 9 I think.


I did go to Cardiff to see the Worthington Cup final (when it was that) when we lost 2-1 to Liverpool and watched football all the time but I have an awful memory from when I was a kid and the Arsenal match was the one I can properly remember.
♫ We've got our trophy back
We've got our trophy back
We've got our trophy back
We've got our trophy back♫
 

Random Task

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My earliest recollection of watching United was the 0-0 draw away at West Ham with my dad and brother (it was the 96 season I think). I don't remember a great deal about the game as I was only 11 at the time, just that it cost us the title and my dad being furious about that.
 

Denis' cuff

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First actual game FA Cup Final v Leicester City - 25/5/63.

A neighbour of ours told my Dad that his son had just got mumps and could not go down to Wembley with him for the final. He had noticed that I was football mad and asked him if it was OK for me to take the lads place. The 60's were a bit more laissez - faire and my father was happy to let his 6 year old son toddle off to Wembley with a relative stranger! The drive down from Leeds seemed to take hours and we parked outside the stadium :). Not a brilliant game and Leicester were all over us in the first 20 minutes and Gaskell was absolute rubbish. Then the King scored and my love affair started, both with the man himself and the club.
On my 50th birthday, my wife [who hates football and had no idea about this story] presented me with a gift that was obviously a picture of something. Suspecting it was another Picasso or Dali print I was amazed on unwrapping it, that it contained a '63 Cup Final commemorative shirt signed by Dennis himself. I will freely admit I broke down in tears.

Gaskell
Dunne
Cantwell
Crerand
Foulkes
Setters
Giles
Quixall
Herd
Charlton
Law

First league game v WBA - 14/9/63.

After the final this was the first game that my neighbour could take me to in the league. Scrappy game, but a certain young man made his debut, and the rest as they say, is history.

Gregg
Dunne
Cantwell
Crerand
Foulkes
Setters
Best
Stiles
Sadler
Chisnall
Charlton
aye, remember that game well. Sat on the old fella’s shoulders for the first half before I got a spot on the front fence.

the old stand had been ripped out and the building on the cantilever stand had started, hence the squeeze all along that touch line.
 

manichester

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First game around 1956. I think it was against Blackpool (distinctive orange kit) and I remember being in the Warwick Road end. At that time I it was uncovered and I remember the old scoreboard.