Sir Alex Ferguson managed 47 Manchester derbies between 1986 and 2013, more than anyone else in the history of the fixture, and he won 26 of them. That return measures how far United pulled away from their neighbours in his 26 years in charge, and it is still the reference point whenever the Man United vs Man City betting odds go up. Two of his worst days in football also came in it.
The record in full
47 matches, 26 wins, 10 draws and 11 defeats. United scored 78 goals in those games and conceded 60, a win rate of just over 55 percent. Sir Matt Busby, second on the list, took charge of 39 derbies and won 15. All but one of Ferguson’s defeats came from November 2002 onwards, meaning he went more than a decade in the middle of his reign without losing to City.
His first derby was a cup tie
Ferguson took charge on 6 November 1986, 12 days after a 1-1 draw at Maine Road under Ron Atkinson. His own first derby came in the FA Cup third round on 10 January 1987, when Norman Whiteside punished an error by the 19-year-old Steve Redmond for the only goal. The 54,294 who watched it were United’s biggest home crowd of the season.
Two months later he won the league meeting 2-0 at Old Trafford, through a Nicky Reid own goal and a late Bryan Robson finish. City were relegated that spring, so the next derby waited until September 1989.
The 5-1 that took 13 years to answer
That wait ended badly. Newly promoted City won 5-1 at Maine Road on 23 September 1989, with two goals from David Oldfield and one each for Ian Bishop, Andy Hinchcliffe and Trevor Morley. Mark Hughes replied after half time. It was the low point of Ferguson’s early years in the fixture, and the start of a 13-year drought for City, who next won a derby in November 2002.
Two of his best wins in the fixture
On 7 November 1993, Niall Quinn scored twice inside 33 minutes to put City 2-0 up. Eric Cantona pulled one back seven minutes after the interval, equalised on 78 minutes, and Roy Keane won it three minutes from the end. It was the first time a Ferguson side had come from two goals behind to win a Premier League match.
The rout arrived a year later, on 10 November 1994. Cantona scored and then set up Andrei Kanchelskis either side of the interval, Hughes prodded in a Keane cross, and Kanchelskis completed his hat-trick on the break. United won 5-0, the first Premier League Manchester derby to produce a hat-trick.
The late winners of 2009 and 2012
Two of his derby wins came in stoppage time. Michael Owen settled a 4-3 win at Old Trafford in September 2009, in the sixth minute of four added on. Robin van Persie’s deflected free kick won it 3-2 at the Etihad in December 2012, after Wayne Rooney’s two first-half goals had been cancelled out by Yaya Toure and Pablo Zabaleta.
That result sent United six points clear at the top, and did more to the Premier League betting odds than any other afternoon that season.
The defeats that stood out
City’s 6-1 win at Old Trafford on 23 October 2011 was United’s heaviest home defeat in the fixture since 1955, and Ferguson described it afterwards as the worst result of his career. Six months later Vincent Kompany’s header gave City a 1-0 win that took them top on goal difference, and they held on for the title. His last derby, on 8 April 2013, followed the same pattern, James Milner and Sergio Aguero scoring in a 2-1 win for City a month before he announced his retirement.
He still left a record no United manager has approached since. The defeats sit almost entirely in his final decade, once City had the money to rebuild, while the 26 wins run across his whole time at the club. A one-off derby still turns on form more than on the table. Betting is for over-18s only.
