CITY 2 MANCHESTER UNITED 3
FA Carling Premiership
7th November 1993
Attendance 35,155
Scorers
City Quinn(2 & 32)
United Cantona(52 & 77), Keane(86)
Ref R Hart
City Coton, Edghill, Curle, Phelan, McMahon, Kernaghan, White, Sheron, Quinn, Flitcroft,Vonk – subs Lomas(unused), Griffiths(unused), Dibble(unused)
United Schmeichel, Parker, Irwin, Bruce, Pallister, Cantona, Ince, Keane, Hughes, Kanchelskis Sharpe – subs Giggs(76), Robson(unused), Sealey(unused)
NIALL QUINN CELEBRATES SCORING A BRACE
ARTICLE FROM THE GREAT DERBY MATCHES MANCHESTER UNITED VERSUS MANCHESTER CITY
A nail-biting scoreline suggested a cliffhanging classic, and that indeed was what it was. It was also that old cliche, a game of two halves, with the home side galloping into a seemingly decisive lead only to be pinned back and finally overtaken. ‘The score at half-time was a travesty,’ insisted United’s Alex Ferguson.
United came into the game after what the papers were terming their ‘Euro heartache’ in Istanbul against Galatasaray determined to show that, whatever their naivety in international terms they were still more than capable of sorting any local trouble. Eric Cantona was, as ever, the man making headlines, having been shown the red card after a game that had seen United fail to pierce the home defence.
Yet the first half of this particular ‘journey into hell’ belonged to the less than exotic figure of City’s Niall Quinn, who set the Kippax alight by scoring twice in ten minutes in the first half. The tall Irishman gave Gary Pallister a torrid time, turning him inside and out and proving very much the master of the United defence.
The second half was to unfold rather differently, thanks to that man Cantona. A left-foot shot whistled past Coton after 52 minutes, the
Frenchman having won the international battle with City’s Dutchman Vonk. If Coton could have been faulted for going down early, he stood little chance with a right-footer just before 80 minutes, Cantona receiving a return cross from Giggs after playing ’keepy-up’ in midfield.
This knocked the stuffing out of City, and Keane’s 87th-minute decider from close range after a Lee Sharpe cross was in no way unexpected.
