Birth Of Fergie Time

Sir Alex Ferguson trying to compose himself. Brian Kidd on his knees, kissing the pitch. Steve Bruce engulfed by team-mates and an Old Trafford crowd blubbering in the April sunshine.

Out of view stood a man reflecting on the extra seven minutes and 16 seconds that allowed Manchester United to score the goal which beat Sheffield Wednesday in 1993 and secure their first top-flight title in 26 years.

Meet referee John Hilditch. In the days before electronic scoreboards showing the added time, he began the match as the linesman and finished it as the referee in what he has always felt was footballing fate.

Bruce's winning goal - his second that afternoon - came so late that Owls manager Trevor Francis joked it had been scored in the second leg but whatever its timing, there is no doubt that its impact on the plotline of English football in the 1990s and beyond was seismic.

Hilditch had been on the line at Wembley for Liverpool's FA Cup final win over Sunderland a year before, but while that game is his own personal highlight, it is the events in north Manchester on that spring afternoon that has become folklore among football fans.

"I've always wondered to myself if all of those things were meant to happen that day," Hilditch tells skysports.com, his Potteries accent immediately putting to bed any rumoured associations with the red half of Manchester (instead his loyalties lie with Stoke City and Barcelona).

"I turned up expecting to see John Martin referee the game but he'd been injured and was replaced by Mike Peck. That was the first little twist. Everything was going well, there was no controversy in the game and 15 minutes into the second half, Mike injured his Achilles and I took over.

"We didn't have fourth officials like now and on that day the man doing that job was from the local FA, so we took our time changing over to give him a good chance to compose himself. While that was happening, Mike offered me his watch but I turned him down because I'd been keeping time myself and I carried on using my own."

A nervy afternoon soon burst into life. Chris Waddle flew past Paul Ince in the penalty area and was tripped for a clear foul. Ince was furious, but only at himself.

"It was one of the easiest decisions I ever made," added Hilditch, who spends his days now assessing referees and maintaining his fitness levels after being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. "It was a clear penalty. Giggsy (Ryan Giggs) and (Peter) Schmeichel had a little pop but it was nothing nasty. I think it was disappointment more than anything."

John Sheridan rolled the ball past a diving Schmeichel and Old Trafford fell silent.

Ferguson acted swiftly, putting on Bryan Robson for right-back Paul Parker and the game's momentum changed.

"Manchester United completely pressed them after that," said Hilditch. "There were lots of stoppages for injuries and fouls and with every goal kick, Chris Woods was taking more and more time.

"It all added up to the seven minutes and 16 seconds which were played but a lot of people think the equaliser came in injury time. It didn't. Steve Bruce scored his first goal on 88 minutes and a lot of people get that wrong."

At 1-1, the pressure was building on the players and referee.

"I knew (Sheffield Wednesday striker) Mark Bright from refereeing him in Stoke and he was very good natured with me. Waddle asked me if Mickey Mouse had fallen off my watch, which gives you an idea of what it was like. I was questioned, certainly, but it was all good natured."

The events of those seven minutes are well-thumbed history. Bruce, having looped home a header late on, repeated the feat from a deflected ball into the box - amazingly from centre-back partner Gary Pallister.

Ferguson and his assistant manager Kidd celebrated on the touchline. Kidd dropped to his knees and the rest is history. The 2-1 win gave United an unassailable advantage over Aston Villa at the top of the inaugural Premier League. They won the title by 10 points.

"I've never said it was time-wasting - it was time-consuming," said Hilditch. "And it all added up to seven minutes and 15 seconds. It was common practice then to wait in the centre circle to be taken off the pitch by the stewards and as we waited, Nigel Jemson said something to me.

"This huge policeman told him where to go and I thought, 'you'll do for me', and we walked off together.

"Trevor Francis came into my dressing room to ask where I'd got the extra time from. He was very polite and accepted my reasoning but he didn't agree with it."

In a sport as partisan as football, accusations of bias have - perhaps naturally - flown since that day. But the immediate aftermath was much lower key than it might have been had it happened in today's social media-obsessed age.

"A couple of journalists asked me how I felt but only one asked me where I found the extra time from," says Hilditch. "That was the only bad press I got."

The advent of the fourth official's board, which informs everyone watching how much added time will be played, would have unquestionably helped at Old Trafford that day, but the referee isn't sure the situation would have played out much differently in a modern setting.

"Technology has benefited the game but I don't think it would have changed much about that game," he said. "There was no reason to caution anyone because it wasn't really time-wasting in the true sense.

"There were substitutions, injuries and a few other things going on. They all added to it."

Hilditch is well placed to make such a judgement. He's still close to football in his role as an assessor - "they're called observers now," he corrects - a job for which iPads will replace the traditional pen and paper next season.

The rigours of getting to games in the depths of winter are exacerbated by Hilditch's condition, but he has slowed its symptoms with an exercise regime in which his character as a referee is never far away.

"I go to the gym twice a week and do weights and classes, all kinds of things," he said. "I was diagnosed seven years ago and I'd retired by then but was still doing Sunday league football because I love it so much. I really liked refereeing on Sundays because everyone knew me."

Memories of Old Trafford, even 22 years on, and other vastly-important games such as the European Cup quarter-final between Porto and Bayern Munich, are as sharp as ever for Hilditch, who admits referees have to be 'a strange breed'.

"I don't know why some of us do it," he says with a laugh. "I did it because I wasn't good enough to play football but I loved the sport."

His abilities as a referee were questioned by Sheffield Wednesday representatives that day and have been repeatedly scrutinised by United detractors in the years since those dramatic moments at Old Trafford.

But to avoid any doubt about the validity of his decision to add so much time at the end of the game, the last word goes to Ferguson himself.

"That night I watched the video of the second half and used my stopwatch to time all the stoppages for injuries and substitutions," said the legendary Scot.

"There should, in fact, have been an additional 12 minutes."

Credit: Skysports.com