ON THIS DAY

After 27 years as manager Alex Ferguson took charge of Manchester United for the last time in the League. He saw his side let in 5 goals at WBA – they drew 5-5, the first time that scoreline had been recorded in the Premier League. United finished the season as champions of the Premier League, a full 11 points clear of second-placed Manchester City.

The word most often used to describe Southampton's former home at the Dell was 'cramped' and a cramped capacity crowd of 15,252 saw a dramatic and memorable end to their 103 years at the ground. In the last competitive match at the Dell Arsenal were the visitors for a Premier League fixture with the Gunners twice taking the lead. Hassan Kachloul equalised twice for the Saints before 32-year-old Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier came on as a sub and scored an 89th minute winner. Amazing! A week later Southampton entertained Brighton in a friendly for the very last match at the ground - Brighton United had been Southampton's first opponents at the Dell on 3rd September 1898.

The end of the 1976/77 season saw one of the closest - and most controversial - top-flight relegation battles. In the days of two points from a win Tottenham and Stoke had finished their First Division league programme and were both relegated - Spurs were bottom with 33 point and Stoke one place above them on 34 points. The remaining relegation spot would go to one of three other clubs who were also on 34 points - Sunderland, Coventry and Bristol City - and each of those had one match left to play which they were all playing on Thursday 19th May 1977 - the Saturday was reserved for the FA Cup final. Sunderland had the slightly better goal difference but had a toughie last match away to Everton while amazingly Coventry and Bristol City were paired against each pther at Coventry's old Highfield Road home. The permutations of scorelines to who would be relegated filled many a column inch in the newspapers but nobody would have believed what was to happen. All the matches were due to kick off at the same time but Coventry Managing Director Jimmy Hill held back the kick off of the Coventry v Bristol City match for over 10 minutes due to 'crowd congestion'. So when the full time whistle went at Goodison, where Everton had beaten Sunderland 2-0, they were still playing at Highfield Road where the scoreline was 2-2. Jimmy Hill got that result at Goodison announced over the PA system which meant that the crowd - and players - knew that if the scoreline remained at 2-2 both Coventry and Bristol City would be saved and Sunderland relegated but if a fifth goal went in at Highfield Road the losing club would go down and Sunderland would stay up. With that knowledge the players had a gentle kick-about in those remaining few minutes with no thought of scoring. So the match ended 2-2, Coventry and Bristol City stayed up, a very upset Sunderland were relegated. A Football League inquiry followed and Jimmy Hill received a reprimand but the result stood and Sunderland were even more upset.