Fergie Time (Anonymous)
A phenomenon where time seemed to expand was first noted on 10th April 1993 at Old Trafford during the final stages of a football match between Manchester United and Sheffield Wednesday. The expansion of time seemed to match the homes club’s need to score a winning goal. There is a theory in some quarters that if United hadn’t scored the winner they’d still be playing today.

All joking apart Sir Alex Ferguson is considered one of the greatest football managers of all time, he has won more trophies than any other manager in the history of football. Starting his career in Scotland he won promotion and the First Division title with a young St Mirren team before moving to Aberdeen where he broke the big two monopoly wining three Scottish league championships, four Scottish Cups and the Cup Winners Cup however whilst he enjoyed success at previous clubs it was his extensive spell with Man United that propelled him to the top of the managerial achievers list.

In his 26 years at Old Trafford he won the English Premier League title a record 13 times, took 2 Champions League titles, 5 FA Cups, 10 FA Community Shield’s, 4 League Cup’s and the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup. Looking back it is easy to forget that Fergie’s first 3 years at United were success free. It wasn’t until the 89/90 FA Cup win that he achieved his first trophy . More cup success followed over the next couple of years but he’d promised the club and it’s fans the First Division title and that was being hogged for most of the 80s by deadly rivals Liverpool and Arsenal.

Building on previous year’s cup success the 91/92 season saw United at last in with a chance of the First Division title. It was a quarter of a century since they last won the top tier league. United were playing better quality football than their rivals and looking in with a decent chance until a stuttering run in saw them take only four points compared to eventual champions Leeds United’s thirteen in the final five matches of the season. Heads were shaken, Ferguson’s side were ok for the odd cup triumph but just not up to a sustained title challenge.

Cue the Fergie Time occurrence during the run in to the 92/93 season. United were second to Villa with six games remaining . They lined up for a tough home game against eventual 3rd place Sheffield Wednesday who took a 1-0 lead in the 66th minute. Tension was rising , it looked like United were going to blow their challenge for the league title again. Steve Bruce scored an unlikely equaliser in the 88th minute but United needed wins not draws.

There had been some stoppages in the game so some extra time to be added. Sir Alex took to prowling the technical area thrusting out his watch and jabbing it with his forefinger, indicating in very clear non-verbal communications to the match officials what his thoughts were. A remarkable 7 minutes 16 seconds of injury time were played out during which United scored with another Bruce goal. The result took them top and the momentum saw them win their remaining games and claim the title ahead of the faltering Villa. A phenomenon was born.

Incredibly FIFA has no set rules on how the amount of injury time to be added is worked out Its left to the referee to determine so as you can see there is scope for subjectivity.
Opta and Digital Technology , two sports stats analysis firms, have run the rule over games to see if the phenomenon does actually exist or rather is it the biased perception of underachieving teams jealous fans. In particular other team’s fans accuse Sir Alex Ferguson's United of getting more added time to score that crucial final goal than any other team.

Analysis showed that for Man Utd and other ‘top’ teams (for top read successful teams with vociferous home support and demanding managers) in home games they were losing there was on average more added on time than in home games they were winning allowing them more chance to get a last gasp goal. Even allowing for time added on for substitutions and cards there is time left over that seems to be at the discretion of the referee and it was this that was the reservoir of Fergie Time.

Analysts noted that the phenomenon did not tend to be replicated in the away games of the top teams. It was noted that when a substitution was made in stoppage time a lot more time is added to the clock compared to when substitutions were made in normal time.

Going back to that sunny April afternoon at Old Trafford Brian Kidd, United's assistant manager, always adjusted his own watch to allow for stoppages and with three minutes of normal time left was heard to announce there were still six minutes to go.

Sir Alex with his rather more forceful gesticulation managed to more than double that.

Thinking that United won because they had more time is a misunderstanding though. If a team is truly a reflection of the character of the manager then the demanding, unreasonable, strong willed Ferguson was well represented by a team who at that time never knew when they were beaten or perhaps they just didn’t went to trudge off the pitch beaten and to face the wrath of such an unreasonable boss.

None the less if Fergie Time is a phenomenon of top teams why not call it ‘top team time’ or ‘Mohurino time’ or’ Klopp time ‘or ‘Guardiola time’? Successful as the others have been no-one else quite manifested the desire to win as strongly as Ferguson as he forced his will on to match officials with a simple gesture.

Apparently in a rare moment of self reflection Sir Alex studied tapes of the match that evening and calculated the amount of time that should have been added. He said by his calculations it should have been 12 minutes!