Sheff United 2 Man United 1

Mark Hughes

Shef­field Uni­ted 2 Man­chester Uni­ted 1, Bramall Lane, Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue, Au­gust 15, 1992. Man­chester Uni­ted suc­cumbed to a nar­row and un­ex­pec­ted 2-1 de­feat at the hands of Shef­field Uni­ted on the open­ing day of the fir­st Pre­mier Lea­gue sea­son. Bri­an Deane gave The Blades a two-goal cush­ion be­fore Ma­rk Hug­hes sco­red a con­sol­a­tion goal for the vis­it­ing si­de a min­ute pa­st the hour mark. 

The Man­chester Uni­ted Fir­st Te­am Squad for the 1992-93 Pre­mier Lea­gue cam­paign in­cluded goal­keep­ers Pe­ter Schmei­chel, Les Sealey, and Ga­ry Wal­sh; de­fenders Clay­ton Black­more, Ste­ve Bru­ce, Bri­an Carey, De­nis Ir­win, Lee Mar­tin, Pat Mc­Gib­bon, Co­lin Mur­dock, Ga­ry Ne­ville, Ga­ry Pal­lister, Paul Par­ker, and Neil Whit­worth; mid­field­ers Rus­sell Beards­more, Nicky Butt, Dar­ren Fer­guson, Ry­an Gig­gs, Paul In­ce, An­drey Kanchel­s­kis, Gi­uli­ano Maior­ana, Mi­ke Phelan, Bry­an Rob­son, Paul Scho­les, and Lee Sharpe; and for­wards Eric Can­tona, Di­on Dub­lin, Keith Gil­lespie, Ma­rk Hug­hes, Bri­an Mc­Clair, and Co­lin McK­ee. Am­bi­tious Man­chester Uni­ted man­ager Al­ex Fer­guson had bolstered his Old Traf­ford squad dur­ing the clo­se sea­son wi­th the sign­ings of de­fender Patrick Mc­Gib­bon from Ir­ish Lea­gue club Portadown and for­ward Di­on Dub­lin from Foot­ball Lea­gue Fir­st Di­vi­sion out­fit Cam­bridge Uni­ted, whi­le stop­per Mal Don­aghy, mid­field play­er Paul Wrat­ten, and at­tack­er Ma­rk Robins, had be­en trans­ferred to Chel­sea, Hartle­pool Uni­ted, and Nor­wich City respectively.

Bri­an Deane, a £40,000 buy from neigh­bouring Don­caster Rov­ers in the sum­mer of 1988, be­came the fir­st ever play­er to score a Pre­mier Lea­gue goal when he fou­nd the back of the net wi­th a clo­se ran­ge head­er in the fifth min­ute of the con­test to hand Shef­field Uni­ted an early lead in front of a ho­me crowd of al­most 30,000 spec­tat­ors at Bramall Lane. The Three Li­ons stri­ker also had the ball in the net la­ter in the fir­st ha­lf, but it was ruled out for off­side. Fol­low­ing the break, how­ever, Deane ad­ded a sec­ond goal for the So­uth York­shire club on fifty min­utes as the twenty-four-year-old marks­man be­at Den­mark in­ter­na­tion­al Pe­ter Schmei­chel from the pen­alty spot af­ter fel­low for­ward Alan Cork had be­en il­leg­ally bro­ught down by Eng­land de­fender Ga­ry Pal­lister in­side the box. Ma­rk Hug­hes ma­naged to re­duce the de­fi­cit for Man­chester Uni­ted el­ev­en min­utes la­ter, but Shef­field Uni­ted held firm to win the mat­ch by 2-1. In oth­er open­ing fix­tures, Leeds Uni­ted edged out Wim­bledon by a 2-1 mar­gin at El­land Road thro­ugh a brace by Lee Chap­man, whi­le Nor­wich City de­feated Ar­senal 4-2 at High­bury where no­ne oth­er than Ma­rk Robins sco­red two of the goals for The Ca­nar­ies. Shef­field Uni­ted Te­am: Si­mon Tracey, Alan McLeary, Da­vid Bar­nes, Carl Brad­shaw, Paul Bees­ley, Mi­ke Lake, John Gan­non, Kev­in Gage, Bri­an Deane, Glyn Hodges, Alan Cork. Sub­stitutes: Ian Bryson, Char­lie Hart­field. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Pe­ter Schmei­chel, De­nis Ir­win, Ste­ve Bru­ce, Ga­ry Pal­lister, Clay­ton Black­more, Dar­ren Fer­guson, An­dre Kanchel­s­kis, Paul In­ce, Bri­an Mc­Clair, Ma­rk Hug­hes, Ry­an Gig­gs. Sub­stitutes: Mi­ke Phelan, Di­on Dublin.

 

Mark Hughes Quickfacts

Ma­rk Hug­hes amassed a total of 16 goals for Man­chester Uni­ted in the 1992-93 season.

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