Frustration by Manchester United. Since 1967 the club had tried and failed to win the Division One title, the wait not aided by the success of rivals Liverpool. As the years rolled by and the eighties arrived, the scars became deeper with every false dawn.
The 1983/84 season was a prime example of the varying emotions experienced by United fans at the time. Going toe to toe with Liverpool through almost the whole campaign, there was hope, expectation, excitement, anticipation, before the inevitable disappointment. Somehow finishing fourth in a two-horse race, United had blown a great opportunity to end the drought.
Under Ron Atkinson's management, cup success was welcome. Yet it was the title that remained the itch to be scratched at the club. With Liverpool unusually vulnerable at the start of the 1984/85 season - Graeme Souness had left the club and Ian Rush was injured - would Atkinson and his team be able to take advantage?
With new signings brought into Old Trafford - Gordon Strachan, Jesper Olsen and Alan Brazil - and the continued development of Mark Hughes, hopes were high once more that this could be United's year. But the first four league matches gave some indication of what to expect; United would draw all four, despite taking the lead in three.
At home United would remain undefeated in the league until January, and although they were inconsistent on their travels, by the start of December the club were second, just a point behind a resurgent Everton. As they prepared to make the trip to the City Ground on December 8, the bookmakers had installed them as favourites for the title.
However, there were warning signs that perhaps Atkinson's latest model was not quite up to the task. A 3-0 defeat at Aston Villa was embarrassing, with the 5-0 thumping at Everton providing evidence to many of United's soft underbelly. But it was the 3-2 reverse at Sunderland that stung the most.
Leading 2-0 after goals from Bryan Robson and Hughes, the wheels well and truly fell off at Roker Park. As soon as Clive Walker got a goal back a minute after United's second, the afternoon disintegrated. Hughes was sent off, along with Sunderland Dave Hodgson, and two more strikes from Walker before half-time sealed United's fate.
Hughes would be suspended for the match at Forest, with Brazil taking his place in the starting XI alongside Frank Stapleton who was in for the injured Norman Whiteside. John Gidman's injury handed a first league start of the season for 20-year-old Clayton Blackmore at right back. As the first half progressed, it looked like these enforced changes had not damaged United's prospects.
Strachan's eighth penalty of the season gave United the lead in the 14th minute, after Brazil had latched on to Stapleton's fine through ball and been brought down by Forest goalkeeper Hans Segers. Strachan added another from outside the box in the 26th minute, and with Robson and Remi Moses completely dominating in midfield, United managed to get to the break with their lead intact.
Perhaps there would be anxiety within the United camp about holding another "dangerous" 2-0 lead. It took half an hour for Sunderland to turn things in their favour just two weeks before. But as the match moved past the hour mark in Nottingham, surely lightning would not strike twice. Cue another half hour of mayhem.
David Riley had missed a golden chance to halve the deficit at the start of the second half, yet it would be Steve Hodge's goal in the 63rd minute that loosened United's hold on the match. Running through a static backline, Hodge fired past Gary Bailey from Gary Mills' pass. Gordon McQueen's reaction - a brief throwing of arms to the sky and a suspicious look towards Bailey - would have implications later.
In fairness to the visitors, Strachan tested Segers with a low drive, and Forest's keeper denied Stapleton with a stunning save from a close range header. But when Mills equalised with 12 minutes remaining, once again United's glass jaw was exposed. The knockout blow would come in the final minute.
Blackmore's foul on Peter Davenport on the edge of the penalty area provided Dutch midfielder Johnny Metgod with an inviting opportunity to clinch all three points. Metgod clipped his effort over the United wall, the ball arcing beautifully towards the top corner past Bailey's flailing right hand. Ecstasy and agony at the City Ground.
Setting off on "one of the longest laps of honour of the season" as John Motson described it on Match of the Day, Metgod had sunk United, with the Express' Alan Thompson noting that "Johnny Metgod gave the impression he felt capable of hurdling the stand and walking on the Trent." Atkinson must have felt like he was drowning.
A furious Atkinson was understandably tetchy in his response to the defeat. "That was one of our finest performances this season and we have come away empty-handed," he complained. "I will never accept that we were out scrapped. Don't anybody tell me that. That was the biggest fluke result you have seen in your life."
Whether United had been out scrapped by Forest was open to debate. But behind closed doors, United's players were definitely demonstrating their fighting qualities. As the players filed back into the away dressing room, the inquest commenced.
In Andy Mitten's fine book on Manchester United in the 1980s - We're the Famous Man United - Bailey explains his growing frustrations at the time. "I had conceded fewer goals than any other goalkeeper four seasons in a row and was very proud of my record, so I took it personally when things didn't go right."
Bailey and McQueen had been locking antlers in the weeks building up to the Forest match, and things were about to explode. "I was frustrated with him and he was frustrated with me," Bailey explains. "I was very frustrated with Gordon because whenever I tried to organise my defence he wasn't where he should be, so I was forever having to cover."
Their previous exchanges and the nature of another lead squandered at Forest provided the fuel, but it would be an accusation thrown by McQueen regarding Bailey's bravery that ignited the fire. "I wasn't a coward. I put myself all over the place and had the bumps to prove it. So I walked across to confront Gordon."
Bailey freely admits that the pair came from different backgrounds; McQueen was a working-class lad in comparison to the university-educated Bailey. The keeper intended to use words to argue his case, whereas McQueen had a slightly different idea. "In classic working-class style, he punched me hard in the face," Bailey reveals.
"One person held me back and twelve held him back," Bailey continues. "Thank goodness they did because he would have killed me." The next day, Bailey joined a kung-fu class, and over the next few years his street fighting lessons earned him enough respect in the dressing room that no one took him on again.
But the Forest episode neatly summarised where United were at during that period. A good team, but infuriatingly inconsistent for anyone who followed them, Atkinson's teams were never quite good enough to topple both Merseyside clubs in the league, and it was no surprise that it was in cup competitions where the team could raise their game.
Atkinson would pay the ultimate price for the failure to bring the title back to Old Trafford. For a while it appeared as if his successor would go the same way as so many before him. A match at the City Ground in 1990 would help to change the Alex Ferguson reign. A little over five years before, a match at the same ground proved a lot more painful for United's players and fans in more ways than one.
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