Little Book of Manchester United (21 page)

Read Little Book of Manchester United Online

Authors: Ian Welch

Tags: #Sports & Recreation, #Football

BOOK: Little Book of Manchester United

2.98Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

*A youthful David Beckham in action for United Youths.

Two more wins followed in 1994-95 and 2002-03 to leave United standing on top of the pile with nine titles although a tenth crown proved to be, hopefully temporarily, beyond them as they lost 4-3 on penalties to Liverpool in 2007 after the game had been tied at 2-2 after extra time. Amazingly, 6,492 spectators attended the ‘junior Manchester derby’ in February 2006 that saw City knock United out of the Youth Cup by a single goal.

C
HAPTER 26:
Z
-
Z
ERO

Zero

Manchester United kept a total of 1,681 clean sheets in their 5,161 matches to the end of the 2007-08 season. Of these, 1,344 came in League matches with a further 152 in the FA Cup, 59 in the League Cup and 114 in Europe. United saw their Premiership record for the most clean sheets in a campaign (24 achieved in 1994-95 when they ironically finished second behind Blackburn Rovers) broken by Chelsea during the 2004-05 season when they only conceded a miserly 15 goals. Peter Schmeichel’s record of playing 694 minutes without conceding a goal has also since been extended, first by Chelsea’s Petr Cech, with 1,024 minutes, and then by one of Schmeichel’s successors, Edwin Van der Sar. There were 1,311 minutes between Nasri’s strike for Arsenal on 8 November 2008 and Peter Lovenkrands’ opener for Newcastle on 4 March 2009.

*Peter Schmeichel celebrates in May 1999.

P
UBLISHING
R
IGHTS

The pictures in this book were provided courtesy of the following.

GETTY IMAGES

101 Bayham Street, London NW1 0AG

PA PHOTOS

paphotos.com

Design and Artwork by David Wildish

eBook Design by Scott Giarnese
Published by G2 Entertainment Limited

Publishers Jules Gammond and Alan Jones

Written by Ian Welch with Jules Gammond

First published in the UK in 2007

www.G2ent.co.uk

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Printed and bound printed in the EU

ISBN 978-1-907803-06-2

The views in this book are those of the author but they are general views only and readers are urged to consult the relevant and qualified specialist for individual advice in particular situations.

G2 Entertainment Limited hereby exclude all liability to the extent permitted by law of any errors or omissions in this book and for any loss, damage or expense (whether direct or indirect) suffered by a third party relying on any information contained in this book.

All our best endeavours have been made to secure copyright clearance for every photograph used but in the event of any copyright owner being overlooked please address correspondence to G2 Entertainment Limited, Unit 19, Waterhouse Business Centre, Cromar Way, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 2QE