Manchester United F.C. 9–0 Ipswich Town F.C.

Manchester United F.C. 9–0 Ipswich Town F.C.

Manchester United beat Ipswich Town 9-0 in the 1994–95 FA Premier League. The result stands as the record home win in the competition’s history. It is also the joint biggest win either home or away for United and Ipswich. The match was played in front of the highest attendance in the league to that point in the season.

About Manchester United F.C. 9–0 Ipswich Town F.C. in brief

Summary Manchester United F.C. 9–0 Ipswich Town F.C.Manchester United beat Ipswich Town 9–0 in the 1994–95 FA Premier League. The result stands as the record home win in the competition’s history. It is also the joint biggest win either home or away for United and Ipswich. The match was played in front of the highest attendance in the league to that point in the season. Ipswich finished the season in last place and were relegated while Manchester United were second, one point behind champions Blackburn Rovers. Before this match, the two teams had met 50 times in all competitions; Manchester United had the upper hand with 24 wins to Ipswich’s 18. The most recent game between the two sides, which was played at Ips Norwich’s Portman Road on 24 September 1994, finished in a 3–2 win for Ipswich, with Paul Ince scoring twice. The game was the first time the teams had played each other in the Premier League, with United winning 20 of the teams’ 45 meetings, while Ipswich had 17 wins. Manchester United won the 1993–94 Premier League title by eight points ahead of Blackburn, but were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League in the group stage of the competition.

The United players were indignant at Ipswich’s enthusiastic celebrations after the win, saying: “they were more than exuberant in their celebrations, so that stuck a bit’”. The match also marked the debut of Ipswich manager George Burley, who took over from John Lyall in the summer of 1994. United had won just one of their four meetings with Ipswich in the first two seasons of the league, and lost 2–1 on their first Premier League visit to PortMan Road in January 1993. In the corresponding fixture earlier that season, they had beaten Ipswich 3-2 at their home ground, but the result was not recorded until the next season. United were missing Eric Cantona, their French international forward who was serving a nine-month suspension, and their attacking partnership of Andy Cole and Mark Hughes was not well regarded by pundits. The pairing of Cole and Hughes up front was not considered well-matched, but United manager Alex Ferguson rejected a transfer request from Kanchelskis, along with Ryan Giggs, Andrei Bierley, Ryan Shawcross and Paul Mason, to sign Cole in January 1995.