Manchester United FC - Stretford End: stretford end fans

This picture shows how Old Trafford looked like from above in 1984. Still not completely covered, the old Stretford End stands alone in the left of the image (west). The west side of the ground for many fans, will always be the legendary Stretford End. Crammed behind the goal was a heaving mass of almost 20,000 standing United fans who were amongst the loudest in Britain.

As Alex Ferguson prepares to pass Sir Matt Busby as the club's longest-serving manager, many people do not remember that he has survived chants of "Fergie out" from the Stretford End, taken himself to the brink of retirement and been re-energised by the youth within his squad, yet even Ferguson admits his looming milestone is not one he expected to pass.

'I could never have imagined that I would surpass Sir Matt's longevity. When I came here, my main thought was to win the league and that was my driving force. I couldn't visualise that I would end up with 24 years behind me, going into my 25th year. When I came to United, I had Sir Matt at the club and Bobby Charlton also. They were a comforting part for me. I knew they could understand what I was looking to achieve.'

However, the Stretford End congregation still has little sympathy for their prodigal son Wayne Rooney.

Sir Alex Ferguson Quotes

"We have people coming here to admire the scenery and enjoy their crisps."

"When an Italian tells me its pasta on the plate I check under the sauce to make sure. They are the inventors of the smokescreen."

"Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow and you think it's a better cow than the one you've got in your own field. It's a fact. Right? And it never really works out that way."

"Go and make your mistakes in the first team. You'll learn more in a month in the first team than you will in two years in the reserves."

"You can't applaud a referee."

Sir Matt Busby Quotes

"It was a very simple team talk. All I used to say was 'Whenever possible, give the ball to George'"

"Nobby Stiles a dirty player? No, he's never hurt anyone. Mind you, he's frightened a few!"

"He (George Best) was able to use either foot - sometimes he seemed to have six."

"I never wanted Manchester United to be second to anybody. Only the best would be good enough."

“In all modesty, my summing up of 1955-6 and 1956-7 must be that no club in the country could live with Manchester United.”

"He (Bobby Charlton) was idolized from his twentieth year on."

"If you don't put them in, you can't know what you've got."

"Germany was one thing and facing Old Trafford another. When I approached the ground and moved over the bridge along which our supporters had squeezed fifty abreast in there tens of thousands to shout for us I could scarcely bear to look. I new the ghosts of the babes would still be there, and there they are still, and they will always be there as long as those who saw them still cross the bridge, young, gay, red ghosts on the green grass of Old Trafford."

"Over the years people called several players the new Duncan Edwards. First Dave Mackay, then Bryan Robson. But none of them came close. He was the only player that made me feel inferior."

"I do not worry about conceding goals because I know my forwards will double it at the other end."

"Manchester is my Heaven."

Manchester United FC - Stretford End

Stretford End Pre Match

Old Stretford End Tunnel

Stretford End Sympathy?