Pep Guardiola will lead Manchester City into the 186th Manchester derby on Saturday, hoping that his side can end a run of four league meetings without a win against Manchester United.
In the build-up to the game the City boss has been typically dismissive of City’s rivalry with United, keen to play down the importance of the game and treat it as just another opportunity to win three points.
However, if his general view of the fixture doesn’t quite align with that of most City fans, then one thing he said in his Friday press briefing certainly did.
“Be ready the last minutes of the first half and the second half,” Guardiola replied when asked what his side must do at Old Trafford. “I’m pretty sure they will call Sir Alex Ferguson to install the Fergie Time because I think it’s going to happen.”
Through many traumatic experiences, City fans know that on derby day, the laws of time don’t seem to apply. On more occasions than one cares to remember, United have found a late goal to rescue themselves and break blue hearts.
The worst thing is the inevitability of it all; if you head into injury time level against United, they will end up scoring.
The 2009/10 season was the absolute worst. At Old Trafford in the first derby of the season, Michael Owen scored a late, late goal to clinch a dramatic 4-3 win for the hosts. The goal came six minutes into four minutes of stoppage time.
(Image: Tom Purslow/Manchester United via Getty Images)
A few months later, Wayne Rooney scored an injury-time winner to complete a 4-3 aggregate win for United in the League Cup semi-final, prolonging City’s wait for a major trophy by another year.
In April, Paul Scholes’ 93rd-minute header at the Etihad completed a hat-trick of last-gasp United winners, a feeling enough to knock any City fan sick.
A few years a later in December 2012, Robin van Persie scored a late free-kick, after City had fought back from two goals down, to seal a 3-2 win as United marched towards reclaiming the Premier League title from City.
Since then, the last couple of years notwithstanding, City have beaten United a lot. They’ve hammered them on a few occasions (cough, 6-1, cough, shoulda been 10) and they even famously won the league in Fergie Time.
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City have done everything to make the past decade a pretty miserable one for their cross-town foes, but a final frontier of sorts remains: the Blues are yet to beat United with a last-minute goal.
Imagine the scene; a packed Stetford End falling silent as Phil Foden wheels away, kissing the City badge after scoring a last-gasp winner. Would a derby win get any better than that?
We City fans have had our fair share of fun over the past decade, and our team’s success has probably just about made up for the years of hurt we endured while United were winning trophies left, right and centre. We’ve come so far – but the Holy Grail remains.
A Fergie Time winner for City at Old Trafford would provide a memory that lasts a lifetime.
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