Things were a lot different for Manchester United in January 2004. Reigning Premier League champions, top of the table, a certain young starlet called Cristiano Ronaldo was beginning to make waves. You can reel the names off from memory. Keane. Ferdinand. Scholes. Van Nistelrooy. Sir Alex Ferguson in the dugout. You’d be forgiven for thinking this side was unbeatable. Then Wolverhampton Wanderers beat them.
Top of the Premier League played bottom on 17th January 2004. United had Ryan Giggs out of action with a back injury. Ferdinand started as his eight-month ban for missing a drugs test loomed. But this Red Devils vintage was thought to have more than enough for Dave Jones’ Wolves.
READ MORE:
There was a familiar face among the gold-shirted opposition. United legend Paul Ince had left Old Trafford acrimoniously a decade before. Rooted out as Sir Alex Ferguson looked to make room for his ‘Class of 92’, there was a simmering resentment between the midfielder and his former manager.
‘The Guv’nor’ was 36 years old at this point and playing his last season of Premier League football. But he remained a formidable proposition, making 32 appearances in the top flight that season. Famously combative, it was clear Ince relished this chance to take a bite out of the manager that shunned him.
These Wolves had worn hangdog expressions during a difficult first half of the campaign. United had been the ones howling at the moon, striking fear into opposition hearts. But something clicked during one magical afternoon at Molineux. The formbook was out of the window. We’ve grown accustomed to comparatively lowly sides tearing strips off the modern Man United. But when Jones’ Wanderers did it in 2004, it felt seismic.
The game ticked every box as far as upset victories go. An unheralded goalkeeper, Michael Oakes, having a worldie. A pair of spectacular saves to deny Van Nistelrooy and forgotten man David Bellion kept his side in front. There was the sight of one of the favourites’ number going off injured. Ferdinand began his eight-month ban by hobbling off the field after 51 minutes.
But what every underdog tale needs more than anything is a hero. Wolves had Kenny Miller, perfectly cast in the role of unlikely conqueror. Previously of Rangers, soon to be of Celtic, Miller wasn’t your usual centre forward. He retired aged 40, with 268 club goals to his name. But few conjure such memories as the one he stuck past the Red Devils.
The architect of the goal was another ghost of Ferguson’s past. Denis Irwin, winner of seven Premier League titles in United red, lined up in the Doritos-sponsored gold of their opponents on this day. The 38-year-old had left the club with none of the acrimony of Ince, and was loudly applauded by home fans during the Old Trafford fixture earlier in the season.
But ultimately the gifted full-back’s contribution would prove pivotal. It was Irwin’s flicked header which Miller expertly controlled, before sitting Wes Brown down and sweeping the ball into the net. Molineux was in raptures. The Scottish goalscorer was besieged by jubilant teammates. Nobody did this to the champions, at least not while bottom of the league. But here were Wolves, writing their names into history.
The result would ultimately have more of an impact on United than Wolves. It snapped a seven game unbeaten run for Ferguson’s side, the sort of form they never recovered that season. Wins over Southampton and Everton would give way to a four-game run without a victory. Their stuttering form would see them beaten five more times during that campaign, including defeats to rivals Manchester City and Liverpool. United finished third, with just an FA Cup for consolation. The fact that a season that would be seen as a roaring success for the current side was judged an unacceptable failure in 2004 shows how far the club has fallen in recent years.
Wolves would only win three further games that season, finishing rock bottom of the table on 33 points. Miller only scored one other goal in the league. Irwin retired. Ince stuck it out for two years in the newly-branded Championship, but never played Premier League football again. Jones was sacked just two months into the following season. It would be five years before the Midlands club returned to the Premier League.
But for one magic afternoon, the stars aligned. Ince was still ‘The Guv’nor’, Irwin was as good as he ever was, Miller was a lethal striker and Jones masterminded Ferguson’s downfall. It would never be this good again. But it was that good once.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
