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Premiership Capsules - Spurs 3 Man Utd 5

Jim Grimason

10/4/07

This week, 6 years ago....

When you’re playing at home and 3 nil up after the first 45, you may be forgiven for assuming you’ll take maximum points come the final whistle. In a remarkable game played on 29th September 2001 maybe that’s what the Tottenham players were thinking in the dressing room at the interval. A dangerous assumption given the opposition. The reigning Premiership champions, Manchester United.

Tottenham had started the game brilliantly, Dean Richards heading home 15 minutes into his debut. Les Ferdinand doubled the lead with a low drive after the United defence had pushed up for offside. Spurs dominated the first half and Christain Ziege made it 3 nil on the stroke of half time with a diving header from a superb Gus Poyet cross.

Alex Ferguson, Man Utd’s manager, is notorious for his ‘hairdryer’ treatment were he verbally blasts players head-to-head and you can bet nobody wearing red was looking forward to the team talk at the interval.

However, whatever was said or done during the break certainly worked. Within a minute of the re-start, Andy Cole headed home Gary Neville’s cross and there was a glimmer of hope for the 6 time champs. Following Beckham’s corner, Laurent Blanc rose to score his first for United and the momentum had now swung the way of the visitors. Van Nistelrooy then completed the comeback with yet another header after a fine cross from substitute Mikael Silvestre. With the game finely poised at 3 - 3, there could only be one winner. It was of course Manchester United. With 14 minutes to go, Juan Sebastin Veron’s left boot found the bottom corner after a fine break from midfield. The Red Devil’s were in dream land. An incredible comeback was complete. David Beckham then put the icing on the cake with a goal of his own on 87 minutes. 5 - 3 it finished to the away side. Truly superb.

It was the only time in Premiership history a team has won a game having been down by a margin of 3 goals at half time. What makes the achievement even more remarkable is that they did it away from home.

Manchester United has of course made quite a reputation for comebacks over the years. Their finest and arguably the best in modern football history came against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final in 1999. Mario Basler had put Bayern ahead early on with a neat free-kick. The score stayed at 1 nil right up to injury time in the second half. The most sought after trophy in club football was getting ready to be presented to the Germans when up popped substitutes Solskjaer and Sheringham to score twice in a minute and sensationally win the Champions League for United. No team has ever won a major trophy in such dramatic circumstances.

That result epitomizes Alex Ferguson’s ‘never say die’ attitude which he has successfully installed in his players past and present.