On This Day: Liverpool squander a two-goal lead at Old Trafford, 1992
If the term “Premier League classic” doesn’t stick in your craw then avowedly you be crawless, but this game remains one of the first to be thusly termed.
A pre-Cantona United were struggling to shake the memory of the previous season’s capitulation – a state of affairs that saw them concede the title, to Leeds, at Anfield, in some kind of desolation-cubed equation. Liverpool, meanwhile, were really starting to feel the Souness Effect, 16th after eleven games with only three wins.
Yet from the off, they played like they meant it, superior in the first half and earning a two-goal advantage. The second of those was grabbed by Ian Rush, who, after a generation spent scoring against everyone but United, broke his duck during part of the aforementioned nose-grinding, now he reinforced with a first Old Trafford goal – one that also took him ahead of Roger Hunt as Liverpool’s all-time leading scorer.
After the break the game petered out as United, attacking an empty Stretford End, ran out of ideas. Then, from nowhere, Mark Hughes notched a brilliant brace slap bang in the onion bag-lobster pot, snatching his team a draw – much to the delight of the old ladies sat behind Fergie, the man himself furiously waving his men back to seek a winner.
Subsequently, United managed to avoid scoring in their next four games, losing three, after which phone calls were made, conversations had, and Denis Irwin stayed put.
