🏟 Greatest Games: When Manchester United scored 9️⃣ | OneFootball

Manchester City may have scored eight earlier this season, but eight is not nine.

Back in 1995, Manchester United did score nine, and it remains the highest margin of victory in Premier League history.

Ipswich Town were the visitors to Old Trafford on 4 March that year.

The Tractor Boys had actually beaten United 3-2 at Portman Road the previous September but by the time of the reverse fixture, they were 20th in the table and struggling.

United had been rocked before the game by Andrei Kanchelskis handing in a transfer request, while Eric Cantona was serving a nine-month suspension for his infamous karate kick on Crystal Palace supporter Matthew Simmons in the January.

Nevertheless, Kanchelskis started against Ipswich in a potent front four which also included Ryan Giggs, Mark Hughes and Andy Cole.

United laid siege to the beleaguered Ipswich defence right from the first whistle and in the 15th minute, Roy Keane broke the deadlock.

Four minutes later Cole made it 2-0 and in the 37th minute, the former Newcastle striker grabbed his second of the game to make it three.

Legend has it that at half-time, Ferguson challenged his team to go out and score three more goals, and Cole completed his hat-trick early in the second half, before a quick-fire Hughes brace made it 6-0.

Mission accomplished then, but United weren’t done yet.

Cole scored his fourth of the game in the 65th minute before Paul Ince made it 8-0 with 18 minutes of normal time remaining.

And then, in the dying minutes, Cole converted from a Giggs corner to complete the rout of all routs.

It was the first time in 12 years that a player had scored five times in a top flight match, and it remained a Premier League record until Alan Shearer repeated the feat for Newcastle in September 1999.

The Old Trafford faithful chanted “We want 10!” while the Ipswich fans in the away end chanted “We want one!” but 9-0 was how it finished.

Ferguson’s biographer Michael Crick revealed years later that the United manager had been praying his team wouldn’t score 10 because he felt sorry for Ipswich boss George Burley.

“That was as near as perfection as you can get,” the Scot told reporters after the game.

“The performance superseded the number of goals scored.”

United were in a race for the Premier League title with Blackburn that year, and the victory was enough to wipe out Rovers’ goal difference advantage at the top of the table.

“It wasn’t a case of: ‘We’re going to humiliate you and grind you into dust,’ it was just: ‘We’re going to score as many as we can and keep going until it’s over.’,” said United defender Brian McClair.

“That’s just the Manchester United way: it’s never over.”

But Blackburn won the 1994/95 title by one point in the end, while Ipswich finished bottom of the league and were relegated.

It wasn’t the end of the story for Ipswich goalkeeper Craig Forrest, however.

In April 2000, Forrest was in goal for West Ham when they were beaten 7-1 at Old Trafford, with Cole scoring past him again.

“You don’t like coming here, do you?” asked a BBC reporter after the game.

“No!” Forrest replied.