The roar from 10,000 miles away was so huge it was a wonder it wasn’t heard at the Cup Final ground.
Five hundred Manchester United supporters, gathered around the television screens in Sydney, shouted with joy as Eric Cantona shot his amazing goal to clinch victory in the last minutes. Weeping, throwing their arms about each other, spilling their Manchester beer...
‘I am not kidding you," says Fred Pollitt, founder and chairman of the Manchester United Supporters’ Club (NSW Branch). "Grown men were crying. I had to wipe the tears from my own eyes."
Four days before the match, the "Sold Out" notice went up for entry tickets at the Sutherland United Services Club: ($12 for members and $15 visitors and all the food you could eat during the long night: Patchett’s pork pies with the jelly all round them, genuine black puddings, pickled onions, chicken cooked in Boddington’s beer batter, hot chips and salads.) The club has members in the UK, the US, Papua-New Guinea, New Zealand and Malta. One - from Manchester - was due to fly home hours before the game. He cancelled and went a little shakily aboard a flight on Sunday.
As the fans got ready for the match, sipping their Boddingtons out of schooner glasses or cans ("sadly, no pint mugs," said Fred, "but after that goal they’d have drunk it out of their hats"); placards were handed round with "Oh" and "La" and "Cantona" on them, so when the lads needed a bit of encouragement, 500 Mancunian voices shouted "Oh La! La! Canton- A!"
Just to warm them up Bobby Dennison, the comedian from Rochdale, told his jokes and tinkled out a tune or two on the goanna. There were auctions and raffles. Fred Pollitt had flown home to the Old Country a couple of weeks before and brought back a football autographed by all the players. It went for $600. And a shirt, autographed by his friend, Bobby Charlton, made $750 for children in a Sydney hospital cancer ward. ‘I met Eric Cantona while I was over there,’ said Fred; ‘shook his hand. He’s a gentleman. A dead-set gentleman. He’s got over that problem with the fan. We keep very much in touch with Old Trafford. They look after us and appreciate our support even if it is a long way away.’
Then - five minutes before the end - came that goal. Fred remembers: ‘It was a shock! He did it from such an awkward position and he went through four men to get it. I think we lifted the roof off.’
When the last Boddingtons had gone down, it was 3.30 AM before Fred and his wife, Ann, the club’s vice-chairwoman, made it home. ‘I had a little bit of a kip in the afternoon, then I had to go off to my job as a safety officer at the international airport,’ said Fred. ‘I was still feeling emotional.’
