Debut: 5-0 win vs Rotherham United (as sub, League Cup tie), October 12th 1988
League Record: 19 games (+29 as sub), 11 goals
Sold to: Norwich City (£800,000), August 1992
Yet another youngster given a chance by Fergie, Mark Robins, like Russell Beardsmore and Lee Martin, was a local-ish lad (from Ashton-under-Lyne) given a chance in a first team that looked increasingly bare in the late 80s: in two years, Fergie had sold Frank Stapleton, Kevin Moran, Graeme Hogg, Peter Barnes, Peter Davenport, Jesper Olsen, Liam O’Brien, Arthur Albiston, John Sievbaek, Chris Turner, Mark Higgins and Terry Gibson, as well as losing Remi Moses and Gary Bailey to injury. Three more experienced internationals would also exit in the Spring/Summer of 1989 – Gordon Strachan, Paul McGrath and the man who’ll be entry #26.
In fairness, most of those needed to be sold due to them being too old or not good enough. In return, we’d brought in Leighton, McClair, Hughes Anderson, Bruce and entries #19 and #21.
Robins, in terms of his first team chances, also benefited from the premature retirement of Nicky Wood, who had been given his first starts by Fergie in 1987 but was finished by back problems. When Davenport was sold, Robins became third choice striker behind Hughes and McClair. Not that it meant much in the season of his debut – the international duo started every single game and Robins was mainly restricted to appearances from the subs bench.
The next season, however, saw a serious injury crisis that necessitated Robins was thrown into the first team. A vital goal in a 2-2 draw at Wimbledon was enough to convince Fergie to keep him there for a vital FA Cup game at Nottingham Forest.
Enough has been written about that game for me to just stick to the basic facts, namely that Forest were a top cup team of the time (they won the League Cup in 1989 and 1990, and had reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1988 and 1989) and United were on a bad run of form, lying just above the relegation zone.
Depending on who you believe, it we had lost, Fergie would have been sacked. Thankfully for all concerned, Robins headed home a Mark Hughes cross following good work by Lee Martin and we held on for the win, though Forest had a goal dubiously disallowed. In the fifth round, he scored again up at Newcastle and followed that up with the winner in the semi-final replay, after which he was carried off the pitch by celebrating fans.
That goal came in the middle of a run where Robins scored six goals in six games, of which he only started one: in the same period, Hughes and McClair (who started all those matches) only mustered three goals between them and the youngster may have fancied his chances for a place in the first XI in the cup final. However, Ferguson opted for experience in the end, leaving Robins on the bench. Though he got some game time, it was Mark Hughes who scored twice, including a late equaliser.
Despite that disappointment, Robins had a winner’s medal and finished the 1989/90 as the club’s second top scorer. However, his career at United had already peaked. Despite starting the next season with some games and getting some goals (including a superb finish against QPR), McClair had rediscovered his scoring form and Mark Hughes was having another impressive season. Some consolation came when Robins won another winners medal by being on the bench against Barcelona,
The next season he saw even less action, featuring in only two league games, and he understandably put in a transfer request. In the summer of 1992, Norwich City stumped up the cash and he was on his way.
Finally given the chance to show what he could do, he scored twice on his debut at Arsenal and played a big part in Norwich’s title push that year. They finished third and Robins’ may have been confident on building towards a prolific future. Instead, he was badly injured at the start of the following season and subsequently struggled to rediscover his form, embarking on a nomadic career that included a short spell at Manchester City. A three year spell at Rotherham United saw him back amongst the goals, and he went onto manage them before he moved onto taking charge at Barnsley.
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