x

It Was 20 Years Ago Today Matt Le Tissier Taught The Mancs To Play

What was also going in and out of style that day, to continue the Beatles song lyric theme was the colour of United's shirts. Here we look back at the day that Fergie threw his toys out of the pram and his grey shirts into the bin.

There is a popular myth in football that the day that Manchester United played in their grey kit in the first half and then their blue in the second was the game that Saints won 6-3, that is wrong although that game as this one exactly 20 years ago today was played in 1996, the reality is that the game in which the shirts were changed was a 3-1 win over the Red Devils on 13th April 1996 as Saints battled against relegation.

United arrived at the Dell that sunny April day having won 10 out of the last 11, the Premier League was hotting up and with four games to play they led by six points although Newcastle had a game in hand.

The relegation battle had come down to perming three from five and the day started with Bolton bottom on 29 points and Saints fifth from bottom on 31, with Coventry, QPR & Manchester City squeezed in between.

The first two of Saints final four where United at home and Newcastle away, then it was a trip to Bolton Wanderers and a final home game against Wimbledon.

So Saints had perhaps the toughest run in of all the bottom five and things were not looking good going into this game against the countries top team.

The truth is Saints went out like a team possessed, they hustled and bustled in a manner which they had failed to do most of the season,

On 11 minutes Ken Monkou had a header, it was saved by Schmeichel but the keeper could not hold it and Monkou stabbed in the rebound to send Saints fans wild.

On 23 minutes it was Neil Shipperley who squeezed the ball home at the near post to double the scoreline.

But i both teams were approaching the break looking to the dressing room for different reasons, up stepped that man Le Tissier in the 43rd minute to turn the game on its head both in terms of result and questions on TV quiz shows.

Peter Schmeichel came for a cross and over stretched himself, as he fell to the ground the ball dropped at the feet of the man United least wanted it too, the man they called Le God in Southampton.

Le Tiss reacted quickly, he flicked the ball over the stranded Schmeichel before the Keeper could react and then with the other foot with two men in front of him on the line stroked it into the far corner grazing the post as it went in. Amazingly this was Le Tissier's first goal from open play all season.

The half time whistle blew barely after Saints had finished celebrating and as United trooped off to face the inevitable hair dryer, Saints fans stood stunned at what they had just witnessed.

As United re took the pitch after the break, something seemed different, at first i thought that it was the fact that Schmeichel had changed his jersey then the realisation sunk in, United had changed their entire kit from grey to blue.

Post match Ferguson complained that his players had been unable to pick out their team mates against the crowd, but the crowd was dressed predominately in red & white not grey

Back to the match and Saints just needed to keep it tight and make sure that they did not give United the chance to get back into it, it was tense and it was nervy, you always felt that if United did score that goal to reduce the arrears this could easily change from a day that was fantastic to one that went down in the meory for all the wrong reasons.

Saints did keep it tight though and with injury time approaching and the Saints fans already beginning to acclaim a momentous victory, United got a consolation through Ryan Giggs, but coming in the 89th minute, even Saints were not going to throw it away now.

Saints lost the following game at Newcastle 1-0 , won at Bolton and then survived a nervy last day 0-0 with Wimbledon to stay up just, Manchester City joining Bolton and QPR in the drop after having pulled back a two goal deficit at home to Liverpool, ex Saints manager Alan Ball now publicly enemy number 1 in Southampton for the manner in which he deserted, was told by the crowd as he sat on the Manchester City bench that Wimbledon had scored a late winner at the Dell, he ordered City to hold the ball rather than push for the winner that they actually needed.

The final whistle blew at the Dell and the news filtered through that City had drawn, up at Maine Road City were just realising that they had been misinformed and that they had been relegated whilst Saints fans were singing in the streets and pubs long into the night.

What to read next:

U's Vs Accrington Match Preview
As the round of matches over the festive period draws to a close, we have the visit of Accrington Stanley on that most rare of events in our football history, a Sunday afternoon kick-off. If you filter out play-off and cup games, in the league this accounts for just 25 games since we were formed, seven won, six drawn and 12 lost. As you would imagine, Sunday games are generally focussed around Christmas and the New Year, or more recently, Sky-mandated final games of the season. It’s been a pretty positive holiday schedule for the U’s too, eight points from four games, and with other results often going our way, we’re now just two places and three points outside the play-offs.
U's Vs Accrington Predictions
Here are the latest score and goalscorer predictions for this weekend's game against Accrington Stanley. Log yours and be part of our Prediction League.
U's Vs MK Dons Match Preview
Happy New Year U’s fans! After two hard fought 1-1 draws away from home across the festive period we kick off the New Year with a home match against Milton Keynes. Tickets look to be selling well, although not in the West Stand it seems, so should be a decent crowd providing MK bring more than their normal coach load. I know it doesn’t count for anything but the calendar year League Two table has us in fifth with 72 points from 46 matches played so 2025 hasn’t been a bad year to be a U’s fan.
U's Vs MK Dons Predictions
Here are the latest score and goalscorer predictions for the New Year's Day game against Milton Keynes Dons. Log yours and be part of our Prediction League.
Gillingham Vs U's Match Preview
First and foremost, I hope you are all having a pleasant Christmas break relaxing with family and friends, and wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. This will be our final match of 2025, with a trip to Priestfield to face old adversary Gillingham, our second game against them this month and our third this season. This will be our 112th game in all competitions against the Gills, a relationship that started with a Ted Davis U’s side winning 2-0 at Layer Road on 27th August 1938. At the final whistle tomorrow we will also be at the halfway point of the season, so considering at the end of September we were 20th, plenty of optimism for the second half of the season.
Gillingham Vs U's Predictions
Here are the latest score and goalscorer predictions for the Twixmas game at Gillingham. Log yours and be part of our Prediction League.
Crawley Vs U's Predictions
Here are the latest score and goalscorer predictions for this Boxing Day game at Crawley Town. Log yours and be part of our Prediction League.
Crawley Vs U's Match Preview
Merry Christmas U’s fans! Boxing Day in proper football leagues means football matches and the U’s face one of their shortest trips of the season as they venture across the Thames to face creepy Crawley. Crawley’s “stadium” is one of the few grounds I’ve gone away with the U’s (the 3-1 League Cup win back in 2019) and it felt like a ground that should be in the National League South but Crawley have been established in the football league since 2011 with two promotions to League One during that time which is impressive given the relative size of the club. We don’t have a huge history against Crawley Town, with just 24 meetings to date of which Crawley have won 11. In fact since that memorable League Cup win we hadn’t managed to beat Crawley until the, not as memorable but probably more important, 3-2 away win towards the end of the 2023/24 season that went a long way to helping us stay in this division.
U's Vs Newport Match Preview
And so, Danny and Nicky enter their second century of games managing the U’s, at home to struggling Newport – let’s hope it starts a bit better than the first century finished. There won’t be many games we score three and lose, trouble is there’ll be even fewer where we concede four and win. That being said, I couldn’t fault the first hour of the Salford game, with the U’s in control of a game against good opposition, and on a typically heavy pitch. Then we kind of fell apart, certainly defensively, helped in no small part by a masterclass from ex-U’s Luke Garbutt (how is he only in League 2?). Credit must also go to 250+ of the faithful, a long trip starting at stupid o’clock – they deserved more than that for their support.
U's Vs Newport Predictions
Here are the latest score and goalscorer predictions for this weekend's game against Newport County. Log yours and be part of our Prediction League.