Signed from: Portadown (£100,000), August 1992
Debut: 0-3 defeat to York City (League Cup tie), September 20th 1995
League Record: That was his only game
Sold to: Wigan Athletic (£380,000), Summer of 1997
Hard to believe there could be worst debut: you get sent off and the team crumble to one of the more humiliating results of recent times. I'm not sure anybody would stand a chance after that - and he wasn't let loose in the first team again.
And that's all I remember of Pat. He'd arrived three years prior, but not got a sniff when we have Pallister and Bruce rarely injured, and back up from the likes of Blackmore, Phelan and May waiting.
We sold him to Wigan, after a successful loan spell there, where he managed five years as a regular before heading back home in 2002.
That should have been us instead of York but our 6'3" so called forward Paul Williams contrived to put a simple header over the bar from a yard out in the last minute then they dicked us in extra time. There was no way back for him after that !
ReplyDeletePerhaps there is an alternative universe where yer man Williams scores, McGibbon has a safe debut against Rochdale and goes on to be a solid United player for years.
ReplyDeleteI'm told that in his half game for United, Beardsley nearly scored for us. The cross came in, all he had to do was connect boot to ball. But then an opposition played slid in, put it into his own net, and Handsome Pete was subbed.
That opposition player? One Harry Redknapp. Of such thin margins are legends made!