In 1986 i was a 15 year old boy living just 8 miles from Oxford in a small town called Woodstock. I had been a Utd supporter since the age of 7 my father was a big fan and used to watch them in the 60's on regular occasions. The majority of my friends at school were Liverpool or Oxford supporters so it wasn't an easy time to be a red. The year before i had managed to go and see Utd for the 1st time live at Villa Park where we ended up wining 3-1 and it was the most magical feeling i had ever experienced.
On the 6th November 1986 Alex Ferguson was appointed the new manager of Manchester United he done the usual press conference sat next to the chairman Martin Edwards and was under no illusions of how big the job he was taking on was as the team were lying 4th from bottom of the old 1st division after 13 games played.
On friday the the 7th November at around 6pm i received a phone call from my Utd supporter friend Nick who was returning home from work when he happened by chance to spot the Utd team coach parked up at the Moat house hotel about 5 miles away from the Manor ground the home of Oxford Utd 'shall we go up there to see if we can meet any of the team' he said. So about an hour later Nick picked me up and we made the short journey to the hotel. When we got there there was no sign of the team bus so we made our way into the bar of the hotel and got a drink and waited patiently. Then a few minutes later the team bus arrived and we made our way to the front of the hotel and to my complete amazement Alex Ferguson was the 1st person off the coach still wearing exactly the same clothes as he wore in the previous days press conference. Myself and Nick approached him immediately and with a warm smile he said a friendly hello and shaking both our hands we replied 'welcome to Manchester United' and 'good luck with your new job' he smiled at us and replied 'i might need it'. Then totally out of the blue Nick said 'Alex if we came back in the morning could we have a photo with you please' i was shocked and had no idea where that came from but Alex smiled again and said 'sure meet me in the bar at 11 tomorrow morning'. Thank you we said and Alex moved on now i was so on cloud 9 that i hadn't even seen the players get off the bus but they had and they were all stood there in the Hotel i could not believe my eyes as i noticed the likes of Kevin Moran,Chris Turner,Clayton Blackmore looking remarkably tanned for that time of year and the mighty Paul Mcgrath to my disappointment there was no Bryan Robson or Norman Whiteside but that disappointment was short lived as i went round the members of the team who all signed my autograph book.
So on Saturday 8th November at 10.30 am Nick once again picked me up and made our way to the Moat house again when we arrived we saw Jim Mcgregor the Utd physio who seemed in great spirits as were the players who again were just hanging around the front of the hotel. Then at exactly 11 am Alex Ferguson appeared still wearing the same suit and tie and immediately approached us 'good morning' he said 'so do you have your camera then?'. So we both had our picture taken and thanked him for his time 'no problem' he said ' and off he went,still star struck i could not believe that he came out looking for us and that he had even remembered.
Unfortunately i never had a ticket for the game which we lost 2-0 and also i have lost the photo with Sir Alex which is probably a good thing as i was wearing a pink jumper tucked in to my jeans (well it was the 80's) but it gives a small insight in to what a great person he is all the things that must have been going on in his mind at that time yet he still took time out to meet us. It is an experience that i will never forget as long as i live. The following year when Utd played at Oxford they stayed at the same Hotel and even though there were more fans around i finally did get to meet Bryan Robson and Norman Whiteside and there autographs are in the same book.
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