Manchester Utd 3 Fulham 0

Man­chester Uni­ted 3 Ful­ham 0, Old Traf­ford, Eng­lish Foot­ball Lea­gue Fir­st Di­vi­sion, April 15, 1968. South­port born goal­keeper Jim­my Rim­mer kept a clean sheet on his Foot­ball Lea­gue de­but for Man­chester Uni­ted in a com­pre­hens­ive 3-0 win over Ful­ham. Bob­by Charl­ton and Ge­orge Best net­ted a goal each for Uni­ted in the fir­st pe­riod be­fore John As­ton ad­ded a third wi­th five min­utes left on the watch.

De­fend­ing Foot­ball Lea­gue Cham­pi­ons and ta­ble-top­pers Man­chester Uni­ted had beaten re­leg­a­tion can­did­ates Ful­ham 4-0 at Craven Cot­tage on­ly three days earli­er thanks to a double from Ge­orge Best and a goal each by Bri­an Kidd and De­nis Law and were mas­sive fa­vour­ites among the pun­dits to de­feat The Cot­tagers at Old Traf­ford. Al­ready with­in the fir­st min­ute of the con­test, Kidd came clo­se to scor­ing for Matt Busby´s Uni­ted, but his ef­fort went wide. Keep­ing up the pres­sure, Three Li­ons in­ter­na­tion­al Bob­by Charl­ton put Man­chester Uni­ted ahead when he blas­ted the ball pa­st Ful­ham shot stop­per Ian Sey­mour and in­to the goal af­ter break­ing thro­ugh the middle in the 13th min­ute of the fix­ture, and a few min­utes pa­st the ha­lf-hour ma­rk Best fou­nd the back of the net from an awk­ward angle to double the ad­vant­age for the hosts. Then, wi­th just five min­utes re­maining of nor­mal time, Best cros­sed for John As­ton who be­at Sey­mour to ro­und off a well-earned 3-0 ho­me vic­tory over Ful­ham. Goal­keep­ing de­butant Jim­my Rim­mer had very few op­por­tun­it­ies to show his abi­lities dur­ing a Fir­st Di­vi­sion ga­me which Man­chester Uni­ted dom­in­ated from start to fin­ish, and reg­u­lar goal­keeper Al­ex Step­ney would re­turn to the start­ing lineup in the next fix­ture ag­ainst Shef­field Uni­ted at Old Traf­ford five days la­ter. A true come­back man, Rim­mer was ev­entually shipped out on loan to Harry Gregg´s Swansea City si­de in 1973 be­fore he sig­ned a per­man­ent con­tract wi­th Ar­senal in 1974. Fol­low­ing 124 Fir­st Di­vi­sion ap­pear­ances for The Gun­ners, he was trans­ferred to As­ton Vil­la, for whom he made 229 top-flight out­ings be­tween 1977 and 1983. The Sand­ground­er la­ter made a re­turn to his for­mer club Swansea City where he fi­nally fin­ished his act­ive shot stop­ping ca­reer in 1986. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Jim­my Rim­mer, Bill Foulk­es, Da­vid Sad­ler, Fran­cis Burns, To­ny Dun­ne, Pad­dy Cre­rand, Ge­orge Best, Bob­by Charl­ton, Bri­an Kidd, De­nis Law, John As­ton. Sub­stitutes: No­ne. Ful­ham Te­am: Ian Sey­mour, Bar­ry Mea­l­and, John Ry­an, Fred Cal­laghan, John De­mp­sey, Ste­ve Earle, Stan Bro­wn, Jim­my Con­way, Les Bar­rett, Joe Gil­roy, Al­lan Clarke. Sub­sti­tute: Bri­an Nichols.

Manchester United Quickfacts

Man­chester Uni­ted be­at Ful­ham 4-3 in a Di­vi­sion Two clash at Old Traf­ford on the 19th of Nov­ember 1932 wi­th a brace by Stan­ley Gal­limore and a goal each from Jim­my Bro­wn and Wil­li­am Ridding.

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