Former Liverpool star Donald Hutchison has admitted that Sir Alex Ferguson was “right” to call his West Ham team a “disgrace” in 1995 after they denied Manchester United the Premier League title.
The ex-Scotland international formed part of the Hammers side which famously held the then-reigning champions to a 1-1 draw to hand Blackburn Rovers the chance to clinch glory at Anfield. Managed by Kop icon Sir Kenny Dalglish, the Ewood Park outfit had emerged as contenders for the title after being bankrolled by Lancashire-born steel tycoon Jack Walker.
With their charge spearheaded by a formidable forward line consisting of duo Chris Sutton and Alan Shearer, they eventually won the league on the final day of the 1994-95 campaign. Despite falling to a 2-1 loss against Liverpool, Rovers snatched the title from United’s grasps after Ferguson’s side failed to win at Upton Park.
Following on from this ignominious final day performance, the long-serving Red Devils boss was left typically incensed as he proceeded to call the West Ham players a “disgrace” after they denied them the championship. Following on from their collapse in East London, they went on to lose the FA Cup final against Everton in a forgettable end to the campaign.
There was no doubting Ferguson’s anguish at how the campaign ended and he proceeded to show mainstays Andrei Kanchelskis, Paul Ince and Mark Hughes the door that summer. However, former West Ham and Liverpool ace Hutchison confessed that the United boss was correct to have called out the side that stopped him from claiming the title.
Discussing the Scotsman’s controversial remarks some 30 years on, the ex-Reds midfielder told goldenpanda.com: “Fergie called us a disgrace afterwards. He was right. He went, ‘These lot are a disgrace!’ He went, ‘They’ve only turned up for one game and it was this one.’
“And he was right, we turned up to stop Man United winning the league. We didn’t mean to. It was just we were so bad, it just felt like we were playing Man United on the last day of the season.”
Reflecting on the dramatic circumstance on the final day of the 1995 campaign at Rovers lifted the Premier League trophy at Anfield, he continued: “Blackburn are playing at Anfield and Kenny’s the manager.
“Being the king at Liverpool, he’s the Blackburn manager trying to win the league. And obviously the history of Paul Ince and how much West Ham and Man United hate each other, it was just the way it was.
“And like I said about having the juice and having the adrenaline, our adrenaline on the day was, we’ve got nothing to play for, except to stop them from winning the league. So that was our game.
Hutchison added: “It would have been the same if it was anyone else. If it was Blackburn, Liverpool, City, it didn’t matter. It just so happened it was Man United.
“We were terrible and Fergie was livid. He battered us. He was right, but who cares? We still stopped them winning the league. It was all we could play for. There’s always one game like that a season, I think.”
