EUROPEAN GOALS
AN OLD TRAFFORD TRADITION
By Tony Pullein
Scoring goals in European competitions
has never been any problem for Manchester
United at Old Trafford. Twenty-eight home
ties have produced 95 goals for the Reds
that's an average of well over three goals
per gameso the prospect of pulling back
the 0-1 deficit against Ajax tonight is cert
ainly not over-awing.
Only once have the Reds failed to score
at home in a European gameand that was
when it didn't really matter at all. We had
already crushed Racing Strasbourg 5-0 on
their own ground in the Cup -Winners'Cup
in May 1955 so we could afford to be in a
benevolent mood for the return, which
ended 0-0.
Ajax are still one of the world's great
clubs, of course. Yet manager Tomislav
Ivic has already admitted his fears of our
60,000 crowd. There is little doubt that the
famous Old Trafford roar is one of the major
reasons for United's fine home record in all
European tournaments. It has the double
effect of lifting our own players—in diffi
cult ties, like tonight'swhile at the same
time scaring the pants off foreign visitors
who have never known such an experience
before.
We have faced far more difficult tasks
than pulling back merely a single goal.
Remember our very first expedition into
Europe?
The quarter-final of the European Cup in
1957 took us out to a Bilbao enveloped in
snow for a nightmare match we all wanted
to forget. United's famous stars performed
like a band of novices against Atletico
and by half-time we were 0-3 down. The
Reds made a storming come-back to make
It 2-3 but then the home side struck again
as the score was extended to 2-5.
Bill Whelan then embarked on a fabul
ous run which ended in a goal but, with the
final score going 3-5 against us, the
situation looked bleak.
The return game was staged at Maine
Road but it was the large crowd that
inspired the lads to a tremendous perfor
mance. Tommy Taylor was the brightest ef
11 United stars that night and a goal from
him, plus others from Dennis Viollet and
John Berry, gave us the 3-0 victory we
needed to take us into the semi-final.
We came home from Spain with another
two-goal deficit in that semi too. But, as
we had faced the fabulous Real Madrid
side at its most splendid peak, we were
unable to get the sort of home victory we
needed to take us into the final. Real drew
2-2.
There have been many famous victories,
it's doubtful if we shall ever emulate the
10-0 margin of our very first home Euro
pean tieagainst Anderlecht in September
1956. Viollet scored four, Taylor claimed a
hat-trick, Whelan got two with Berry
making up the total.
We ran up seven against Waterford in
1968 and registered sixes against Sham
rock Rovers (1957), HJK Helsinki (1965),
Willem II (1963) and Djurgaardens (1964).
One aspect of our European traditian
which will serve as an additional incentive
tonight is that United have never been
knocked out of a European competition
before the quarter-final stage.
Our "worst" performance in Europe was
when we were knocked out of the Cup-
Winners' Cup in the quarter-final in 1964.
That was itself a big shock for we had
beaten Sporting Club (Lisbon) 4-1 at Old
Trafford but were then hit by a 5-0 Sporting
whirlwind in the return.
The last time we participated in the
UEFA Cup then known as the Fairs
Cupwe were knocked out in the semi-
