Why Did United Play At Plymouth?

Manchester United's last, and only, home game against Saint-Etienne prior to tonight's Europa League tie was played in Plymouth back in 1977.

Crowd trouble during the first leg in France initially led to the Reds being ejected from the UEFA Cup but, on appeal, it was decided the second match could go ahead, but only away from Old Trafford.
United won 2-0 at Home Park to qualify 3-1 on aggregate and former secretary Ken Ramsden, who was employed by the club at the time, explained how the situation arose. 

"There was much talk in those days about football hooliganism and the 'English disease', so it wasn't that surprising, but you never really knew what was going on," Ramsden told MUTV. "It wasn't the same wall-to-wall coverage as now, so you gleaned what you gleaned from the radio and newspapers. I didn't fully understand how bad it was but I think the realisation came when the club was thrown out of the competition.

"[Secretary] Les Olive went to Switzerland to plead the case and prepare the case which, fortunately for us, he won - apart from the game being played in Plymouth and being shown on the screens here [at Old Trafford]. For a short while, we were out of the competition until the appeal was heard.

"Then we were allowed back but had to play 300km away from Manchester. Any further and we'd be in the sea! We couldn't go much further away than Plymouth; it's about the farthest point from Manchester you could get. I think it's just over 300km, if I'm not mistaken.

"I could've understood if they'd made us play behind closed doors, anywhere, even though that wouldn't be fair on either team. But it was a weird thing to do. I think Celtic had to play a game here at Old Trafford against Rapid Vienna in a similar situation [in 1984, when a European Cup-Winners' Cup tie was forced to be replayed]. 

"I was surprised they let the fans in. They could easily have played here and had the gates locked. I don't know what UEFA's thinking was behind it but it all worked out well in the end."

Sammy McIlroy was one of the players who took part in both legs and offered his view on the unusual situation.

"I saw some of the trouble [in France] and knew some of the lads had seen it too," he told MUTV. "It was quite bad. Especially when the ball went out of play or dead for a free-kick, you could actually see the police mingling with the sets of fans and batons were being hit on people's heads. It really was severe and I was a bit concerned the game may be stopped.

"They were talking about throwing us out of the competition, which was the one thing we didn't want. They blamed the Manchester United fans, which they always did in those days, and we were thinking we could be thrown out.

"So when they said we were still in the competition but playing at Plymouth, there was a little bit of a sigh of relief. Okay, it's a chance of progressing, even if I think it was quicker for the French fans than the Manchester United fans to get to the game. At least we were still in it.

"The support was unbelievable. I didn't expect anything else. The support we had was absolutely magnificent and, to see all those United fans when we came onto the pitch, it really gave us a big lift. I think there were over 20,000 watching on screens at Old Trafford too and we didn't want to let them down."

Ramsden explained the process of screening the game live at the Theatre of Dreams, a bold project during the 1970s.

"It was weird," he said. "We had to sell tickets for the game on screens here [at Old Trafford]. The technology wasn't great by any stretch of the imagination.

"As I recall, we put big scaffolds up on the pitch and an 8 x 4 sheet of plywood painted white, as a canvas screen would flutter in the wind. All these screens were dotted around the stadium. It was a ticketed affair and a bizarre atmosphere. You were watching a game at Old Trafford, but you weren't. 

"It was weird, is all I can say. The fans didn't know whether to cheer as it was a bit like being in the cinema and not the same as seeing the players live, so it was an odd situation."

Credit: Manutd.com