Ten Hag must hope to invoke spirit of 1990 with FA Cup win over Liverpool

Remember the days when the FA Cup could save a manager? Remember specifically 1990, when the assumption was that, after eight league games without a win, Alex Ferguson would be sacked by Manchester United if they went out of the FA Cup in the third round against Nottingham Forest, and how, with a grimly dogged performance, they won with a second-half Mark Robins goal?

That goal is a key moment in the legend of Ferguson at United. After three unconvincing years, he had splashed out £7.5m on five signings the previous summer and had been facing fan protests as the likes of George Best and Emlyn Hughes called for his head. That season they lost 5-1 to Manchester City, when such things were all but unthinkable. For a couple of home games attendances dipped below 35,000. That was the winter of the “Three years of excuses and it’s still crap. Ta ra Fergie” banner at Old Trafford, when the frustration of more than two decades without a league title really began to be felt.

The Forest game was the start of a classic run. United didn’t play another top-flight side until the final, nor did they play at home. They didn’t win any game by more than a single goal. The 3-2 win in the fifth round at Newcastle was a minor classic. In the semi-final against Oldham and the final against Crystal Palace, they required replays after dramatic 3-3 draws.

It was thrilling, it was fraught and at any second it might have gone wrong for United and Ferguson. What if Jim Leighton hadn’t made that save at Hereford when everybody else stopped after a whistle from the crowd? What if Nick Henry’s shot in the semi-final replay that hit the bar and bounced down very near and possibly over the line had been given as a goal? What if Ferguson hadn’t been