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The Old Trafford time warp and other science fictions
Manchester United's incredible expanding injury-time may not be so mysterious after all
Sir Alex Ferguson checks his watch as Mark Hughes looks on during the controversial Manchester derby at Old Trafford which United won in the sixth minute of added time. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff/Action Images
Time and tide wait for no man unless, that is, he is playing for Manchester United. Then, it would appear, the stopwatch has a fit of the jitters. Amid the fallout from Sunday's Manchester derby, won 4-3 by United in the sixth minute of stoppage time after the fourth official had indicated a minimum of four, it has emerged that, on average, referees add at least an extra minute to games at Old Trafford when Sir Alex Ferguson's side are not leading compared to when they are ahead.
No wonder then that Mark Hughes, the Manchester City manager, was pacing the touchline like an expectant father after his side had brought the scores level at 3-3 as the match went into overtime. Michael Owen having scored the winner after another five minutes and 26 seconds, Hughes claimed his side had been "robbed". The fact that City had only been kept in the match by the goalkeeping of Shay Given and still let Owen slide off their disorganised defenders to collect Ryan Giggs's pass apparently did not come into it.
There has long been a widespread belief that referees favour the big teams, almost always born of the fact that the losers' supporters cannot admit that the better side usually wins. And when, as happened on Sunday, the bigger name wins in extended stoppage time conspiracy theorists are apt to sniff the air.
Anyone who seriously believes that at Old Trafford Martin Atkinson checked his watch after 94 minutes and thought he had better add on another two to keep Fergie happy ought to go and lie down in a darkened room. The reality is that even as the match went into stoppage time Atkinson was adding at least another 30 seconds for the celebrations which followed Craig Bellamy's equaliser and then added 30 or so more for United replacing Anderson with Michael Carrick. Such calculations are inexact anyway. This is not ice hockey, where puck and clock start and stop in unison.
So at home Manchester United are apt to get a few more seconds when they are looking for a winner or, more rarely, an equaliser. There is surely a logical explanation for this. Think about it. In these circumstances United will invariably force a succession of corners and the odd free-kick. As a rule referees allow a set piece to go ahead before ending a match.
Few follow the example of Clive Thomas, bless his little whistle, who at the start of the 1978 World Cup denied Brazil a winner against Sweden when he finished the game between a corner being taken and the ball being headed into the net. For some reason set pieces tend to take longer when time is running out so it is quite easy for a match to overrun when the ref might have blown the final whistle earlier had play been meandering along in midfield.
Unless an injury has necessitated a change, many managers make late substitutions to eat up more time. Yet in the case of Carrick, whether or not Ferguson intended it, the effect was precisely the opposite. Had the game not been stopped at that point Owen would probably have been in the dressing room round about the time he scored.
Something similar, though also with an opposite effect, had happened at White Hart Lane three weekends earlier when Tottenham beat Birmingham with a goal scored by Aaron Lennon in the fifth minute of added time, four having been indicated earlier. Birmingham might have held on for a point had their manager, Alex McLeish, not substituted Sebastian Larsson, the player taking an age to walk off while the home fans seethed.
The referee is the sole arbiter of when time is up. Towards the end of the 1959‑60 season, Tottenham's championship hopes faded when they lost 1-0 at home to Manchester City, having had a goal ruled out at the end of the first half which the referee, Gilbert Pullen, had extended for Cliff Jones to take a penalty that Bert Trautmann blocked.
Jones ran in the rebound but Pullen rightly ruled that the half had ended with the original save. Even so, Danny Blanchflower put his hands on the referee's shoulders and refused to let him leave the pitch until he had given the Tottenham captain a full explanation. Only Danny could have got away with it.
www.guardian.co.uk
Manchester United's incredible expanding injury-time may not be so mysterious after all
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Sir Alex Ferguson checks his watch as Mark Hughes looks on during the controversial Manchester derby at Old Trafford which United won in the sixth minute of added time. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff/Action ImagesTime and tide wait for no man unless, that is, he is playing for Manchester United. Then, it would appear, the stopwatch has a fit of the jitters. Amid the fallout from Sunday's Manchester derby, won 4-3 by United in the sixth minute of stoppage time after the fourth official had indicated a minimum of four, it has emerged that, on average, referees add at least an extra minute to games at Old Trafford when Sir Alex Ferguson's side are not leading compared to when they are ahead.
No wonder then that Mark Hughes, the Manchester City manager, was pacing the touchline like an expectant father after his side had brought the scores level at 3-3 as the match went into overtime. Michael Owen having scored the winner after another five minutes and 26 seconds, Hughes claimed his side had been "robbed". The fact that City had only been kept in the match by the goalkeeping of Shay Given and still let Owen slide off their disorganised defenders to collect Ryan Giggs's pass apparently did not come into it.
There has long been a widespread belief that referees favour the big teams, almost always born of the fact that the losers' supporters cannot admit that the better side usually wins. And when, as happened on Sunday, the bigger name wins in extended stoppage time conspiracy theorists are apt to sniff the air.
Anyone who seriously believes that at Old Trafford Martin Atkinson checked his watch after 94 minutes and thought he had better add on another two to keep Fergie happy ought to go and lie down in a darkened room. The reality is that even as the match went into stoppage time Atkinson was adding at least another 30 seconds for the celebrations which followed Craig Bellamy's equaliser and then added 30 or so more for United replacing Anderson with Michael Carrick. Such calculations are inexact anyway. This is not ice hockey, where puck and clock start and stop in unison.
So at home Manchester United are apt to get a few more seconds when they are looking for a winner or, more rarely, an equaliser. There is surely a logical explanation for this. Think about it. In these circumstances United will invariably force a succession of corners and the odd free-kick. As a rule referees allow a set piece to go ahead before ending a match.
Few follow the example of Clive Thomas, bless his little whistle, who at the start of the 1978 World Cup denied Brazil a winner against Sweden when he finished the game between a corner being taken and the ball being headed into the net. For some reason set pieces tend to take longer when time is running out so it is quite easy for a match to overrun when the ref might have blown the final whistle earlier had play been meandering along in midfield.
Unless an injury has necessitated a change, many managers make late substitutions to eat up more time. Yet in the case of Carrick, whether or not Ferguson intended it, the effect was precisely the opposite. Had the game not been stopped at that point Owen would probably have been in the dressing room round about the time he scored.
Something similar, though also with an opposite effect, had happened at White Hart Lane three weekends earlier when Tottenham beat Birmingham with a goal scored by Aaron Lennon in the fifth minute of added time, four having been indicated earlier. Birmingham might have held on for a point had their manager, Alex McLeish, not substituted Sebastian Larsson, the player taking an age to walk off while the home fans seethed.
The referee is the sole arbiter of when time is up. Towards the end of the 1959‑60 season, Tottenham's championship hopes faded when they lost 1-0 at home to Manchester City, having had a goal ruled out at the end of the first half which the referee, Gilbert Pullen, had extended for Cliff Jones to take a penalty that Bert Trautmann blocked.
Jones ran in the rebound but Pullen rightly ruled that the half had ended with the original save. Even so, Danny Blanchflower put his hands on the referee's shoulders and refused to let him leave the pitch until he had given the Tottenham captain a full explanation. Only Danny could have got away with it.
www.guardian.co.uk