Champs Again

In the clubs first full season at Old Trafford, they were neck and neck with Villa for most of the final stages of the season.

It was one of the most exciting Championships for years. It was also the most exciting for years to come! United went to Villa, lying in second place that weekend, on the second last weekend of the season and lost. This meant they had to get a win in their final game away at Sunderland in order to achieve a second championship.

In a brilliant display of outright attacking play "United Plastered The Mackems to Become Worthy Champions", in the words of the Sunderland Argos and Echo, running out 5-1 winners to take it in style.

Manchester United finished just a point ahead of Aston Villa. They lost and drew eight of their 38 matches but scored 72 goals.

However, the FA Cup holders could not make it past the third round. As Champions, though, they once again played in the Charity Shield at the start of the next season.

Stamford Bridge was again the venue, Swindon Town the opponents this time. Only 8000 showed up to watch a 12 goal thriller, United winning 8-4.

It is worth noting that Harold Halse scored six of United's goals that day, an amazing feat.

Mangnall Resigns

That was to be the end of any success and a return to bleakness for the club. In August 1912 Ernest Mangnall, now assured of his place in the Old Trafford Hall of Fame, sensationally quit the club to take over the reigns at rivals Manchester City.

Earlier in the same week Mangnall had rejected a £1500 offer for Charlie Roberts so it was even more of a surprise when he himself chose to move to the club.

Despite an emergency meeting with the United board, Mangnall would not change his mind and he was allowed to leave with the club's best wishes.

Mangnall had won two championships and an FA Cup (not to mention two Charity Shields) for the club and built a squad of highly talented footballers. His effect on Manchester United should not be underestimated. Forty years would pass before the same level of success would be enjoyed again.

Without Mangnall Manchester United fell apart. John J. Bentley, the club secretary, took over the reigns as manager but could do nothing to stop the slide and United finished the season in 13th with only 13 wins and fourteen defeats.

Hard Times

There was a brief season of relative success to what was to come in 1912/13 when the club finished fourth but it wouldn't last.

With Mangnall gone and the club now heavily in debt thanks to the building of Old Trafford they fell on hard times. In order to help balance the books United accepted a £1500 offer from Oldham Athletic for their captain Charlie Roberts.

Gradually the team that Mangnall had built was broken up and United continued to slump.

As the war began the FA believed it would be a short-lived affair and so the League continued as normal but as it dragged on and as more and more players joined up attendances began to wane. As United continued to do, finishing the season just above the relegation places.

Rumours of Bentley's management style not being liked by senior players and the club's poor form led the manager to resign and return to his previous role. John Robson was appointed in his place.

In 1915 a betting scandal rocked the club. With United struggling for survival they faced a Liverpool side sitting comfortably in the middle of the league. United won the game 2-0, which in itself was a surprise.

Even the referee commented on the peculiarity of the game and the press too speculated about a rather lacklusre Liverpool performance in which they even missed a penalty. The speculation increased considerably when a bookmakers circulated a handbill around Manchester and Liverpool showing they had taken a large number of bets on a 2-0 scoreline.

The bookmaker had offered 7-1 on United winning 2-0 and bets on an actual score were rare at the time. Eventually the Football League launched an investigation and discovered that the game had been fixed by players from both teams.

Three United players (Turnbull, West and Whalley) and four Liverpool players (Sheldon, Miller, Fairfoul and Purcell) were officially charged with the crime and found guilty, receiving lifetime suspensions from the game.

Only United's West protested his innocence through a libel action against the FA but he lost in court. Ex-United and current Liverpool player Sheldon was reported to be the ringleader.

The bans were lifted on all but West after the war. His continued protestations of innocence in the face of the evidence were frowned upon by the FA and his ban remained in place until 1945 by which time he had turned his back on football.

The fix itself was not to save United from relegation, however, but to earn the players money. It is purely coincidence that United avoided the drop by two points that season...

Better news from 1915 was the growing recognition that Old Trafford was one of the best stadiums in the country. This is illustrated best by the fact that seasons FA Cup Final between Sheffield United and Chelsea was played there. Sheffield won 3-1, incidentally.

League Suspended

At the end of the 1914/15 season the Football League was officially suspended due to the war. To fill the gap regional leagues were set up.

Manchester United joined up with Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City and Stockport County to form a Lancashire League southern section. Eventually the country was divided into north and south and games were played on a guesting basis.

For United it was a very dark period. Old Trafford stood empty for long periods at a time and when games were played they lost the majority to the likes of Stockport, Oldham and Rochdale. The lowest ebb came in March 1916 when only 500 fans showed up to watch a dire game in which Oldham won by a solitary goal. That result meant United hit the bottom of even that league.

Football Returns To OT - 1919/20

At the end of the war League football began again after a four year break. Manchester United were unrecognisable from the team under Mangnall. Key players had been transferred, goal-scoring hero Sandy Turnbull had been killed in the war, West was still banned and Billy Meredith was in disputewith the club over a transfer.

Robson remained as manager and he introduced a group of young players he had been grooming. Additional manpower was added through the transfer market, including Clarence Hilditch from Altrincham and Charlie Moore from Hednesford Town.

In the first season back it was obvious United were not going to win anything but a respectable 12th place bode well for the future. Old Trafford itself, for so long a millstone round the club's neck in financial terms, began to pay dividends.

As fans flocked back to stadiums across the country the league average attendance was 22,000 per match - United were pulling in 30,000. The high point was on December 27th 1920. 70,504 fans packed into Old Trafford to watch United take on Aston Villa.

Villa won 3-1 but the money through the gates was welcome.