We must note in passing that Bailey, a fine goalkeeper, always felt
Smith was rather hard done by. “It wasn’t a miss,” he said pointedly.
“Gordon’s shot was on target. It was a save.”
Five days later it was an altogether more ruthless United that took
the field. Three first-half goals killed the game and a penalty on the
hour made it 4-0. It was the sort of pacy, powerful football that
Atkinson had been brought to the club to instil.
Two seasons later, they did it again. The final could not have been
against tougher opponents – a Howard Kendall-managed Everton
side who were not only the holders of the trophy, but who won the
league and European Cup Winners’ Cup that year and had already
beaten United twice: a 5-0 shellacking at Goodison and a 2-1 League
Cup victory at Old Trafford. An even – and frankly somewhat
unexciting – game was shaken into life in the 78th minute when
Kevin Moran was shown a harsh red card for bringing down the
Toffees’ dynamic midfielder, Peter Reid. It was the first FA Cup Final
sending-off, but if anything it seemed to spur United on. The match
was decided by a single goal, but what a strike it was, Norman
Whiteside cutting in from the right wing and hitting an unstoppable
curling left-foot shot past the great Neville Southall.
The 1985–86 season started with a run of ten straight wins, but
United’s form fell away and they finished a distant fourth. With the
pressure building at the start of the 1986–87 season and
performances still patchy, Atkinson was dismissed. In classic
Atkinson style, he threw the players a party to say goodbye. As for his
time in charge, Atkinson once declared, “Managing Manchester
United? Hey, that will do for me.”ROn
ATKIn SOnBottom
Atkinson enjoys
a glass of
champagne in
his office
Below right
Bryan Robson
signs for United
watched by (left
to right) Ron
Atkinson,
Secretary Les
Olive and
Chairman
Martin Edwards
“ IT WAS THE SORT OF PACY,
POWERFUL FOOTBALL THAT
ATKIn SOn HAD BEEn BROUGHT
TO THE CLUB TO In STIL” Images
Getty ImagesFourFourTwo.com The Story of Man Utd 35