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The promise and excitement of stepping onto one of the world’s leading football stages, as Old Trafford was even then well before the commercial monolith that the name of Manchester United morphed into, was cruelly dashed. Leaving the ground that wrenching emotion of feeling cheated still lives with me right now. There’s been hundreds of games since then, many being key to promotion or survival, and a fair few of those have left me with different emotions. But this was something different.

The name Peter Willis is written loud and clear in the County annals. A bogeyman who robbed us of one of the biggest upsets of all time, the Durham policeman’s refereeing performance that evening was nothing short of desperate. Turning to the bare facts. A tie which paired County and United at EP was switched to Old Trafford for financial reasons. The crowd of nearly 42,000 will have brought solace to the bank balance, but was highly unpopular with a lot of fans. The game looked to be going to form. After all the home team, lying in 7th spot in the top division were pitched against a County side 6th in Division 4, and when Jordan nodded them in front on 10 minutes the crowd sat back and waited for the inevitable. Let the text from Stockport County : A Complete Record take up the story:

“Although County were to have yet another poor season, they did have a number of skilful players, and before half-time they created a number of opportunities. The Reds were less than impressive and, with Lou Macari and County’s player-manager Mike Summerbee seemingly intent on re-enacting past Manchester ‘derby’ battles, United’s most dangerous forward was playing himself out of the game. With the supporters uplifted by their team’s performance, the second half saw County go close on a number of occasions before, in the 59th minute, United goalkeeper Paddy Roche felled Stuart Lee and Alan Thompson confidently equalised from the resultant penalty.

20 minutes later, with United still unable to impose their authority on the game, County’s Terry Park picked up possession on the left wing, went round Brian Greenhoff, and curled the ball delightfully round Roche and inside the far post. Unadulterated joy! County did not fall back on defence but pressed for another goal with the result that, in the 85th minute, United’s Scottish international defender, Gordon McQueen, brought down Derek Loadwick with a scything tackle. Referee Peter Willis of County Durham had little option but to send off McQueen, who departed with a considerable degree of petulance.”

There remained 5 minutes, plus anything that Willis added – a drop in the oceans of time, but a brief interlude which lived and continues to live long in the memory of those who witnessed it.

“Three minutes later Mr Willis awarded the Reds a free-kick, seemingly given against County goalkeeper, Mike Rogan, and with no United player near, possibly for time wasting.  Sammy McIlroy took the free-kick which, after a deflection, rolled agonising past Rogan to equalise.

In the 90th minute Peter Willis guaranteed himself a place in the memories of Stockport supporters by awarding United a penalty for a foul by Thompson on Jordan.  It would be churlish to dispute the validity of the decision, but it was certainly a rare event to see a penalty awarded in front of the Stretford End with virtually no appeal from the crowd nor from the players.  Jimmy Greenhoff scored and United had won”

43 years later and those last 5 minutes still rank as a gross injustice … no more and no less. Even with the passage of time things still hurt. There’s still a chance to see how things happened at OT that night. There’s press cuttings; grainy footage of the game and Willis’ disgraceful exhibition. Click on Highlights above.

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Memories of THAT trip to Old Trafford

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THE GAMES

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Where the date is in bold click for highlights of the game

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	Date	Venue	Ground	Competition		F	A	Att:
Wed	30/08/78	a	Old Trafford	Football League Cup (Round 2)	L	2	3	41,761

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