It's a marathon, not a sprint. An oft-used phrase in sport that sadly for those involved has proved to be correct on many occasions. Think Crisp in the 1973 Grand National, Rory McIlroy at the 2011 Masters, and Steve Davis in that black ball final. Timing in sport is everything.
It is possible to come flying out of the blocks and lead from the front. But in the case of Manchester United in the 1985/86 season, the pack had started to breathe down their necks as soon as the clocks went back in the autumn. Winning their first ten matches, and remaining unbeaten for the first 15, surely the long wait for the Division One title was over?
It should have been the start of something for manager Ron Atkinson. But instead it proved to be the beginning of the end. Once the first defeat at Sheffield Wednesday arrived, Atkinson was seemingly helpless to restore the early season momentum. Six defeats in 12 league matches between November and February saw the club cede top spot.
Despite away defeats at Southampton and QPR at the start of March, Atkinson's team were still fully involved in a title race come the start of April. But there was simply no room left for mistakes. The clash with Chelsea at Old Trafford on Wednesday April 9 was effectively a title eliminator.
Chelsea came into the match in terrible form. Winning the Full Members Cup at Wembley was an enjoyable experience, but dreams of winning the title appeared to have evaporated over the Easter weekend. A 4-0 defeat against West Ham at Stamford Bridge was abysmal, but there was worse to come.
The 6-0 hammering at QPR was embarrassing and when this was followed up with a 1-1 draw at home against an Ipswich team that would get relegated, manager John Hollins was left speechless as to where it had all gone wrong.
The form of key striker Kerry Dixon was a huge concern for Hollins and Chelsea's fans. Suffering from a niggling groin injury, Dixon had not scored a league goal in seven matches. The Telegraph's Bill Meredith described Dixon as "floundering like a beached whale" in the Ipswich match, and his hopes of making Bobby Robson's World Cup squad looked to be going the same way as Chelsea's title hopes.
Atkinson was an admirer of Chelsea's struggling striker. In February, rumours grew of Dixon arriving at Old Trafford in an exchange deal with Frank Stapleton. But the deal did not go through and come the final whistle of the key clash between the two clubs, United's beleaguered boss must have been full of regret.
Going into the match without the injured Norman Whiteside and Colin Gibson, United did at least have skipper Bryan Robson back in the team after he had dislocated his shoulder at West Ham in March. But on a night of crushing disappointment, even Captain Marvel was helpless to keep United in the hunt for the title.
Manchester United:
Turner, Gidman, Albiston, Duxbury, McGrath, Higgins, Robson, Strachan (Stapleton), Hughes, Davenport, Olsen
Chelsea:
Godden, Wood, Rougvie, Pates, McLaughlin, Hazard, Nevin, Spackman, Dixon, Speedie, Murphy
Played on a dreadful sandy pitch in a bitter wind, the crowd of 45,355 would see United dominate the match. But Atkinson was all out of luck, as a clinicial Chelsea took their chances to inflict a damaging defeat on their hosts. Inevitably for Atkinson, it would be Dixon who landed the knockout blows.
Tony Godden would play his part in the win. Brought into the team in place of Steve Francis, the on-loan keeper from West Brom had conceded an indirect free kick from which Ipswich scored their equaliser in the previous match. But in denying both Robson and Mark Hughes, Godden was doing his bit to frustrate his former manager Atkinson.
Hughes had been sent flying into touch by Doug Rougvie early on in the match, but Chelsea's rugged centre back was finally booked by George Courtney for a robust challenge on Gordon Strachan. Robson headed wide from the resulting free kick, before Godden made another telling contribution.
Courtney may have missed Godden's fingertip save from Strachan effort, but it was a crucial moment coming just four minutes before the break. Just 40 seconds into the second half the deadlock was broken, as Dixon broke his duck in 1986.
Intercepting from Paul McGrath, Micky Hazard sent Dixon through on goal, the striker racing from the halfway line to calmly slot past Chris Turner. The goal did little to change the pattern of the match, though. United continued to batter their opponents, Jerry Murphy clearing a John Gidman effort off the line, before United were handed a lifeline in the 69th minute.
Hughes went down in the box after a push from Rougvie, with Courtney pointing to the spot. Jesper Olsen scored the penalty to set up a frantic last twenty minutes. Turner denied David Speedie with a stunning save, with Hughes and Stapleton going close late on. But the decisive moment came in the last minute from the boot of Dixon.
Breaking away, Speedie squared the ball for his strike partner, Dixon sweeping home from the edge of the box to hammer a final nail in United's coffin. "They were my first goals of the year and they could hardly have come at a better time," Dixon said after the match. Atkinson was not in agreement.
"Chelsea had three real chances and scored from two of them," Atkinson complained. Robson confirmed what most of us suspected. "It's looking bad for us now. All we could do was go for a win and in a way that was our undoing. We had to play that way to make up for what we lost when we let ourselves down during February and March."
Dixon's 18th and 19th goals of the season - his first league strikes since December - continued Chelsea's fine run at Old Trafford, where they had not lost a league match in 21 years. Yet it was the damage that it had done to United's immediate title hopes that was more of a concern to those at the stadium that night.
"He [Dixon] made Old Trafford numb with the realisation that after a 19-year wait the championship still looks beyond them," Bob Russell wrote in the Mirror. When Sheffield Wednesday won 2-0 at the same ground four days later, United's race had been run.
Chelsea did manage to dent West Ham's title ambitions with a 2-1 win at Upton Park, yet this would be their final win of the season. Losing the final four matches, their sixth-place finish would be as good as things got under Hollins. Two years later, the club would drop back into Division Two.
Finishing fourth after their storming start to the 1985/86 campaign, time was fast running out for the Big Ron at Old Trafford. A poor start to the following campaign - including a 1-0 defeat against Chelsea in a match that Godden saved two penalties - sealed his fate. Alex Ferguson would be the next man attempting to end the drought. For a while, even he looked like going the same way as his predecessor.
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