Manchester City v Manchester United 2005/06

City James, Sun, Dunne, Distin, Jordan, Sinclair, Barton, Riera, Vassell, Ireland, Cole – subs Musampa(77), Onuoha(70), Fowler(77), Croft(unused), Sibierski(unused)

United van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, Evra, Ronaldo, Fletcher, O’Shea, Giggs, Rooney, van Nistelrooy – subs Saha(71), Smith(45), Richardson(86), Howard(unused), Brown(unused)

  From NEDUM ONUOHA, KICKING BACK
… The game is famous for Patrice Evra’s calamitous debut
… United had signed Evra just four days before, and Sir Alex Ferguson had put him straight into the team. I watched from the bench as he got completely destroyed by Trevor Sinclair in the first half. It was like man against boy, and Evra was taken off at half-time.
… Everything was going well, but we were always anxious against United: There was ‘Fergie Time’ to contend with, and if you’re actually playing against United that means the whole game, not just the excruciating last few minutes. But finally, when Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for a lunge on Andy Cole, we started to think we’d cracked it. But the Alpha team in any rivalry is still the Alpha team, even when losing 2-0 and down to ten men, so when Richard Dunne got injured and assistant manager Derek Fazackerley called down the touchline to where I was warming up to say I was going on, I just thought, “Oh my God. Don’t eff it up.
This was a serious gig. I was about to come on in a Manchester derby with 21 minutes to go, and Wayne Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy were the two strikers I’d be going up against. Once again, I had nothing to gain, everything to lose.
… Seven minutes later, van Nistelrooy scored. I’ve double checked since and and it wasn’t my fault, but it added to the pressure. This was full whack Manchester United.
… Then, Robbie Fowler sealed it for City, scoring on the break late on. That moment is one of my favourites: we’d been under the cosh despite having an extra man, but we’d done it. We’d won a derby, my first real derby. City rarely beat United, but we did that day, and for the next week I could leave my house safe in the knowledge Manchester was blue.