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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Will Unwin

‘That goal kickstarted an era’: how Mark Robins saved Alex Ferguson

Mark Robins Alex Ferguson Mike Phelan Coventry Mark Hughes Forest
Mark Robins celebrates after heading home the only goal of the game at the City Ground to put United into the fourth round of the FA Cup
Mark Robins celebrates after heading home the only goal of the game at the City Ground to put United into the fourth round of the FA Cup. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy

Legend has it that Mark Robins saved the career of an ailing Manchester United manager in 1990. On Sunday at Wembley he could influence the future of another. When Robins was 20, amid a United run of 11 matches without a league win, Alex Ferguson hoped his young striker could provide a much-needed spark in a January FA Cup tie at Nottingham Forest – and it worked.

United went on to beat Crystal Palace in an FA Cup final replay and 34 years later Robins will lead Coventry against his former club in the semi-finals. Winning the competition arguably rescued Ferguson’s job in a season when United finished 13th in the First Division. The then chairman, Martin Edwards, always denied Ferguson was on the brink but the results were grim. A loss at the City Ground could have proven fatal but local boy Robins ensured United marched on.

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