Ahead of Sunday’s huge game against City, former United captain Willie Morgan reminisces about playing in the Manchester derby and makes a prediction for the score this time around.
Willie still follows United and thinks that the Premier League title will end up in Manchester this season, hopefully on the red side: “I’ve watched a few of the games, at the beginning of the season I predicted it would be between City and United and so far that seems to be the case. There’s no standout teams at the minute, anyone can beat anyone.
“It depends what Van Gaal does with the team, he’s pretty different but United’s main rivals are City and they’re not great. It’ll be close but hopefully we can pip them. You just need a little bit of luck and to keep tight at the back, it’s a bonus we’ve got De Gea back because he makes a massive difference.”
Willie was a United player between 1968 and 1975, amassing 296 appearances and scoring 34 goals. He has his own memories of playing in the Manchester derby and remembers a fierce rivalry on the pitch but a friendlier one off it: “They were big games but after the match we used to go out with the City lads. On the pitch it was fierce, but most of the players got on well together off it.
“They were good to play in, I enjoyed them and they were games that you looked forward to. We beat them a few times and one of the times they beat us was when we got relegated, even though the result didn’t matter in the end. Overall it was pretty even.
“One of the games that stands out is one at Old Trafford where we were drawing and got a penalty. I I took the penalty in front of the scoreboard end, I think Joe Corrigan was in goal, I scored and we went on to beat them. They were all good games, played very hard but afterwards we were all good friends.”
For this weekend’s game Willie is predicting a United win: “I think we’ll beat them 2-0, that’ll be my bet for this weekend anyway. You just need a little bit of luck and to get the run of the ball on the day but I think United will win.”
