In years to come it will be remembered in Somerset as the day Sir Alex Ferguson dropped into Huish Park by helicopter, the most expensive player in English football cleared a header off his own line and Louis van Gaal sang Yeovil Town’s praises. It was that sort of afternoon as Yeovil embraced the romance of the FA Cup and gave Manchester United a far more uncomfortable ride than anyone could have imagined.
In the end it took a world-class goal from Ander Herrera and the introduction of Ángel di María, a £59.7m signing from Real Madrid, to liberate United. That is as much an indictment of another unconvincing United performance as it is a compliment to Yeovil, who belied their status at the foot of League One with a courageous display. Joe Edwards, the Yeovil captain, summed it up perfectly at the final whistle. “Mass disappointment but extremely proud of each other,” said Edwards, whose header was nodded off the line by Di María.
United had played Yeovil twice before, each time in the FA Cup, winning 3-0 in 1938 and 8-0, in front of 81,565, in 1949 when Sir Matt Busby was building his first great side. Yeovil were the part-timers who had just pulled off one of the greatest giantkillings by knocking out Sunderland – known as the “Bank of England” club at the time – at the old Huish Park where the pitch sloped 6ft from one side to the other.
A few Yeovil supporters could have been forgiven for fearing a repeat of that 1949 United hiding given the way their season is unravelling. Instead they departed wondering what might have been had Kieffer Moore snapped up a gilt-edged chance to put Yeovil ahead early in the second half and trying to get their head round the unfathomable nature of football. “How can we play like that and lose 2-0 against Manchester United yet get beat 3-0 at home by Leyton Orient a few days earlier?” asked one home supporter of another drifting out of the ground.
Football, and in particular the FA Cup, has long had the capacity to inspire players. “A game of a lifetime” was how Gary Johnson described the tie beforehand.
The Yeovil manager, who had high-fived his wife at home when the third-round draw was made, said he would not tolerate any behaviour from his players that would take their minds away from the game – “I don’t want the lads having selfies with Wayne Rooney” – but for everyone else associated with the west country club this was an occasion to savour in every sense.
There were chaotic scenes as the United team coach pulled up outside Huish Park and another frenzy when Ferguson, after arriving in style, signed a few autographs outside.
During the warm-up home supporters lined the pitchside wall, holding aloft cameras and mobile phones to take pictures of players who, in the case of Wayne Rooney and Radamel Falcao, earn more in a month than the entire Yeovil squad pick up in a year.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was that there was nothing to dampen the spirits of those fans – including a Yeovil supporter who flew in from Australia especially for the game – when the tie got under way.
Full of energy, Yeovil played as if affronted by the suggestion that the result was a foregone conclusion while United gave the Football League club enough encouragement in the opening 45 minutes to believe that an upset could happen.
There was, however, to be no repeat of that cup humiliation at Milton Keynes Dons earlier in the season when United were hammered 4-0. Tellingly, of the United XI that night David de Gea and Jonny Evans are the only two players to have started under Van Gaal since. Yeovil have won only once at home in the league this season but Van Gaal’s team selection here provided a measure of how seriously he views the FA Cup and, perhaps, reveals that lessons have been learned from the MK Dons experience.
For Yeovil life will now return to the rather humdrum normality of League One and a game on Saturday at Barnsley. The memories of the day United came to town, however, will live long in the memory even if Johnson and his players did not quite get the result they wanted.
“We wanted to make sure we gave them a fright and I thought we did that,” the Yeovil manager said.
