Carryduff Manchester United Supporters' Club secretary John White offers his views on the latest goings-on at Old Trafford. This week he addresses the comments of current manager Ruben Amorim who claimed last Sunday that his side might be the worst team in the club's history...

Ruben Amorim stated that our current team may be the one of the worst in the history of Manchester United.

Manchester United were founded in 1902 following the bankruptcy of Newton Heath Football Club which was founded in 1878 by the workers from the Carriage and Wagon Works at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Club.

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However, Ruben’s squad is a long way off from being the worst in the history of our great club.

To date this season we have played 22 games, won 7, Drew 5, lost 10, Goals For 27, Goals Against 32. Goal Difference Minus 5. We have 26 points with 16 Premier League games left to play.

In season 1931-32, we played 42 First Division games, won 7, drew 8, lost 27, Goals for 57, Goals Against 115. Total Points 22. Goal Difference Minus 58. United finished bottom of the table in 22nd place. So, with the 2 points for a win in season 1931-32, Rubén’s side have 19 points.

Therefore we just need 2 more wins (4 points under the old system) or 4 draws (4 games less to play this season than season 1933-34) to avoid being the worst team in the history of our great club when we have been in the First Division or the Premier League.

The worst team in the history of Manchester United is unquestionably our 1933-34 team that finished in 20 th place in the Second Division. We played Millwall away in the last game of the 1933-34 season in what is the most historic game in the history of our club.

The game became United’s Nadir. We won 2-0 to finish one point above Millwall who were relegated to Division Three.

In the final game of this current season, 2024-25, we play Aston Villa at Old Trafford. Even the most pessimistic Manchester United fan cannot surely see the current team being the worst we have ever had.

MILLWALL 0-2 MANCHESTER UNITED, ENGLISH SECOND DIVISION

THE DEN, LONDON, 5 MAY 1934, ATTENDANCE - 24,003

Some Manchester United games are memorable for the team’s performance, or because it resulted in a record score, a manager’s first game, a player’s debut or for a victory which saw United win a trophy But this game had none of these feel good factors.

On the contrary, this game may as well have been scripted by the legendary movie producer Alfred Hitchcock known as “The Master of Suspense.” Hitchcock adopted a unique style in which he used the camera movement to mimic a person’s gaze which had the effect of turning the audience into voyeurs.

He captured anxiety and fear in his shots. Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, East London on 13 August 1899 and rose to prominence in the Thirties with movies such as ‘The 39 Steps’ ‘Young and Innocent’ and ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ before moving to Hollywood where he became an institution.

Alfred would have appreciated the suspense of United’s trip to The Den on 5 May 1934. It was arguably the most important game in the history of Manchester United, a “Hitchcockian” game for supporters anxious to learn their fate and fearful of dropping into the Third Division of English football for the first time, all accompanied by a ticking clock and the tension of opponents who were in danger of relegation themselves.

In season 1933-34 Manchester United’s future hung in the balance. Having spent the previous two seasons in Division Two, United had decided to strengthen their team for the 1933–34 campaign in the hope that they could return to the top flight. A.

Scott Duncan, United’s Secretary/Manager, splashed out in the transfer market and brought in a total of 12 new players and with the club having finished sixth in 1932–33, it was hoped that this new batch of signings would help push United out of the Second Division. They nearly did, but not in the way intended!

The 1933-34 season has to go down as the most humiliating in the illustrious history of the most famous club in England. A sequence of one win in 13 league games saw the Reds plummet down the division and by February 24 th they sat just a point ahead of Lincoln City who were rock bottom. Fortunately the team’s form improved slightly during the run-in as United won 4, drew 3 and lost 4 of their next 11 games to give themselves a chance but that still meant United had to beat the team immediately above them to survive – it was winner takes all.

The teams were about to play Russian Roulette and the revolver was loaded squarely in Millwall’s favour as a draw would leave United consigned to the humiliation of playing games in Third Division (North). Not only that but Millwall’s home record was very good, they had only lost one game more, 4, than Grimsby Town who won the Second Division that season. Earlier in the season Millwall visited Old Trafford and claimed a 1-1 draw, Neil Dewar scored for United.

For the final game of the season a lot of United fans made their way to watch the last rites of the club at The Den, a ground which the Football League closed for two weeks following crowd trouble after Bradford Park Avenue beat them 1-0 on 24 March 1934.

The United team given the huge responsibility of winning the game was: Jack Hacking, John “Jack” Griffiths, Thomas Jones, William Robertson, George Vose, William McKay, Jack Cape, Hugh McLenahan, John Ball, Ernest Hine, Thomas Manley Hacking, Griffiths, Vose and Cape were four of the new arrivals who made their debuts during the season with Hacking only having made his debut on 17 March 1934, just a few days after he was signed from Oldham Athletic. Millwall are nicknamed “The Lions,” their crest is a Lion rampant and even their home ground is named in honour of the King of the Jungle.

In biblical terms United faced their own Daniel in the lion’s den moment. Chapter 6 of the Book of Daniel tells the story of how Daniel was saved from lions by the God of Israel. Daniel was thrown into a pit of lions for breaking a decree that no prayers should be said to God for 30 days but Daniel defied the decree.

The next day Darius the Mede, King of Babylon rushed to the pit after he discovered that he had been tricked into punishing Daniel, a friend of his, by Daniel’s jealous rivals. The King cried out asking if God had saved his friend. Daniel replied that his God had sent him an angel to close the jaws of the lions. Now the United fans prayed for their own angel to save them from the jaws of relegation!

It was a beautiful sunny day in the capital and United got off to the perfect start when Thomas Manley scored in the eighth minute. Somehow, despite having the worst defence in the division, United held on until half-time and within a minute of the re- start Jack Cape had added a second. The Reds played the rest of the game out with few scares and avoided relegation, sending Millwall down along with Lincoln City.

Thomas Manley began his United career in September 1930 as a trainee and signed professional terms in May 1931 (195 games, 41 goals) whilst Cape was purchased from Newcastle United in January 1934 (60 games, 18 goals).

Two seasons later, 1935-36, United won Division Two and with it promotion back to Division One. It took Millwall four years to get out of Division Three, winning the Division Three (South) Championship in season 1937-38.

Nine days before the crucial game with Millwall, Manchester City won the FA Cup defeating Portsmouth 2-1 in the final at Wembley Stadium, London. The City side included a player who would go on to make Manchester United the most famous football club in the world, Matt Busby.

Nelson Mandela once said: “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

The United team which beat Millwall and thereby saved the club from being relegated to Division Three, conquered their fear and to this day United have never fallen so far since.

Did You Know That?

Manchester United have been relegated on five occasions: 1893-94 (Newton Heath), 1921-22, 1930-31, 1936-37 and 1974-75. In season 1933-34 they tried everything possible to avoid relegation to Division Three using a club record 38 players during the season and hoping for a change of luck they even changed the colour of their shirts. In 1934, they opted for white shirts with a cherry “V,” the same year Sidney Kingsley won the Pulitzer Prize for drama with his play “Men in White.”

The above is taken from John’s book : 'Manchester United: The Making of a Football Dynasty: 100 Great Matches - 1878-2021'.

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