Season 1979/80
- Home (Short)
- Home (Long)
- Home 1.1
- Home 1.1.1
- Home 2
- Home 3
- Home 4
- Home 4.1
- Change
- Change 2
- Third
- Third 2
- Replica
Back row: K Moran, J Nicholl, G McQueen, P Roche, G Bailey, S Paterson, A Grimes, J Jordan;
Middle row: L Brown (Physio), S McIlroy, A Ritchie, M Duxbury, T Connell, J Greenhoff, S Houston, T Cavanagh (Asst. Manager), D Sexton (Manager);
Front row: M Thomas, T Sloan, L Macari, M Buchan, R Wilkins, S Coppell and A Albiston.
Kit description
Standard home kit (short sleeves). The shirt has the Admiral logo, and two narrow red bands above a broader red band on the sleeve trim.
Match details: Record P7 W5 D1 L1 F14 A3
| 29/9 | Stoke (h) | 20/10 | Ipswich (h) | 10/11 | Man City (a) | 24/11 | Norwich (h) |
| 6/10 | Brighton (h) | 3/11 | Southampton (h) | 17/11 | C Palace (h) | ||
Ray 'Butch' Wilkins gets the better of Arsenal's Willie Young United beat the Gunners 3-0.
Kit description
Standard home kit with long sleeved shirt.
The choice of short or long sleeves was left up to individual players and consequently both styles were worn in the same game. This means it is difficult to record statistics for the long sleeved version.
Match details: Record P1 W1 D0 L0 F3 A0
| 29/12 | Arsenal (h) | ||||||
Joe Jordan joins Mickey Thomas to celebrate the Welsman's goal in United's 2-1 win. Despite the two points United remained in second spot. Photogrpah courtesy of Tommy Nielsen.
Kit description
Variation of the standard home kit. The shirt sleeve trim had three narrow red bands (rather than two) above a broader red hoop.
Match details: Record P6 W6 D0 L0 F17 A4
| 27/2 | Bolton W (h) | 5/4 | Liverpool (h) | 12/4 | Tottenham (h) | 26/4 | Coventry (h) |
| 23/2 | Bristol C (h) | 7/4 | Bolton W (a) | ||||
Arthur Albiston is quick into the tackle Goals from Joe Jordan and Mickey Thomas gave United a 2-0 win.
Kit description
Variation of the standard home kit worn with black shorts. The shirt sleeve trim had three narrow red bands (rather than two) above a broader red hoop.
Match details: Record P3 W1 D0 L2 F2 A8
| 1/3 | Ipswich T (a) | 29/3 | C Palace (a) | 3/5 | Leeds U (a) | ||
Sammy McIlroy in the 100th League 'derby'. United won 1-0.
Kit description
Variation of the standard home kit. The shirt featured a special club badge to mark the 100th League meeting between the two sides.
Match details: Record P1 W1 D0 L0 F1 A0
| 22/3 | Man City (h) |
United's League record against City (up to and including this game) was -
P100 W 37 D33 L30 F140 A 140.
A week after conceding six at Ipswich, United managed a clean sheet against Everton, helped by the ever cool and classy Martin Buchan.
Kit description
1978/79 home kit with centenary crest.
Match details: Record P1 W0 D0 L1 F0 A0
| 12/3 | Everton (h) | ||||||
Sammy McIlroy equalises from the penalty spot in the FA Cup third round tie at White Hart Lane. The game ended 1-1. Photograph courtesy of Tommy Nielsen.
Kit description
The standard home kit but worn with the 1979 FA Cup Final shirt. The shirt sleeve trim had two narrow red bands above a broader red hoop.
The variant (Home 4.1) was often worn in the same match as the standard home 4 shirt, often by both Gordon McQueen and Joe Jordan.
Match details: Record P14 W8 D2 L4 F21 A14
| 22/8 | WBA (h) * | 22/9 | Wolves (a) | 15/12 | Coventry C (a) * | 9/1 | Tottenham (h) |
| 1/9 | M'brough (h) * | 10/10 | WBA (a) | 22/12 | Nottm F (h) | 2/2 | Derby C (a) |
| 5/9 | Tottenham (h) | 1/12 | Tottenham (a) | 5/1 | Tottenham (a) * | 9/2 | Wolves (h) |
| 15/9 | Derby C (h) * | 8/12 | Leeds U (h) | ||||
| * We have evidence that both Home 4 and 4.1 shirts were worn in this match. | |||||||
Joe Jordan makes his way back to the dressing room after a hard fought 1-1 draw against his former club. Photograph courtesy of Tommy Nielsen.
Kit description
A variant of the Home 4 home kit. The shirt sleeve trim had just one narrow red bands (rather than two) above a broader red hoop.
Unfortunately both this shirt and the standard version were often worn in the same match making it impossible to compile a statistical analysis for this shirt.
Kit description
Standard change kit.
Match details: Record P1 W0 D0 L1 F0 A2
| 2/4 | Nottm For | ||||||
Mickey Thomas' dramatic fling header. The game was a 1-1 draw.
Kit description
1978/79 change kit with centenary crest.
Match details: Record P5 W1 D4 L0 F6 A3
| 25/8 | Arsenal (a) | 13/10 | Bristol C (a) | 12/1 | Middlesbrough (a) | 16/2 | Stoke C (a) |
| 8/9 | Aston V (a) | ||||||
Stevie Coppell jumps over Saints 'keeper Terry Gennoe at the Dell on the opening day of the season. Photograph from the extensive Leslie Millman Collection of United memorabilia.
Kit description
Standard third kit.
Match details: Record P1 W0 D1 L0 F1 A1
| 18/8 | Southampton (a) | ||||||
Despite the attention of Martin Buchan and Stewart Houston, Alan Hansen opens the scoring at Anfield.The scousers won 2-0.
Kit description
1978/79 third kit with centenary crest.
Match details: Record P1 W0 D0 L1 F0 A2
| 26/12 | Liverpool (a) | ||||||
Admiral advert that appeared in 1979 in the "There's Only One United" magazine and sent to us by Tommy Nielsen.
Season in brief and kit notes
Following the use of a special centenary crest in the previous season, all three kits again featured the traditional club crest, and the Admiral logo became a permanent fixture.
The trend for variations of the standard kit continued unabated; a special club crest appeared on shirts for the Old Trafford 'derby' and both the 1978/79 centenary and 1979 Cup Final shirts were worn several times throughout the new season. The centenary change and third shirts were also used.
Tommy Nielsen sent us a photograph of an Admiral advert for United's 1979/80 replica kits.
The replica change kits appears to differ from the official players kit considerably.
The Admiral logo is black and white rather than coloured; the shorts have an Admiral logo on the left side. The white socks with red band and black hoop are completely different.
Sexton paid a new club record of £825,000 to bring Ray Wilkins to Old Trafford from his previous club, Chelsea. Wilkins remains one of the classiest midfielders to have played for the club since the War. Wilkins' arrival signalled the side's strongest title challenge since their return to the top flight, and club captain Martin Buchan and Gordon McQueen were dominant at the heart of United's defence. Despite winning seven of their final eight League games they lost out to Liverpool by just two points. The 2-0 defeat at Brian Clough's Nott'm Forest on April 2nd proved crucial.
The most embarrassing defeat came at Portman Road on March 1st. To counter the threat of Ipswich's English international Paul Mariner, Sexton instructed Martin Buchan to man mark the centre forward. Realising the tactic early Mariner simply dropped deep, pulling Buchan out of position. Ipswich won 6-0, despite Gary Bailey saving three penalties, and Mariner scored a hat trick.
United were beaten in the early rounds of both domestic Cup competitions. Despite losing their 'keeper early in a third round FA Cup replay at Old Trafford, Spurs won 1-0 in extra time and Norwich won 4-1 at Carrow Road in a League Cup third round tie. East Anglia was certainly not a happy hunting ground for United.
Can you help?
We have been unable to identify which kit was worn in the following matches:
| 29/8 | Tottenham (a) | 26/9 | Norwich (a) | 21/10 | Everton (a) | 15/3 | Brighton (a) | 19/4 | Norwich (a) | 23/4 | Aston Villa (h) |
