Ritchie the Red Devil

Remember Andy Ritchie playing for Man Utd? Neither did we, until Goals on Sunday reminded us...

Think of Andy Ritchie and you think of Oldham Athletic. The Huddersfield Town manager played more than 250 games for the club in two stints at Boundary Park, including some memorable seasons in the Premier League, and he even spent a spell there as manager. You might also remember him as a player with Leeds United or Scarborough and possibly even Brighton and Hove Albion, but you'd have to be of a certain age, and have a pretty decent memory, to remember that his career started with Manchester United. It was back in 1975 as a 15-year-old that Ritchie joined United, under Tommy Docherty, and as he told Goals on Sunday this week, it was all he could ask for as a young footballer. "It was just a dream to play for your home town club," he said. "And it was a fantastic time with some great players to play with. "The likes of Sammy McIllroy, Stevie Coppell, Stuart Pearson, Gordon McQueen and Mickey Thomas. It was absolutely fantastic." Ritchie stayed at United until 1980 when he moved to Brighton for £500,000, which meant he was involved in the 1979 FA Cup run that climaxed with a memorable final against Arsenal. Ritchie played in every round of that Cup run until the final, but he said it didn't occur to him to be bitter about missing out on his big day at Wembley until a few years later. He said: "I was an 18-year-old and I had been involved in every round, either playing or as a sub - there was only one sub - and I was made 13th man, unlucky for some! "I didn't really reflect on it until maybe two or three years later when I had left the club. "I was still involved; we went down and stayed in London from the Tuesday and trained down there. "I still felt involved and didn't get to know until probably the day before the game that I was going to be 13th man. I think it was Brian Greenhoff that was made sub and he wasn't fully fit. "It didn't really hit me until a couple of years later that I thought I really should have been on the bench that day. "I was sat there and the emotions going through. We were 2-0 down with about 15 mintues to go, we got back to 2-2 and were still celebrating our goal to make it 2-2 and they went up the other end and scored. Alan Sunderland scored the winner." Ritchie's FA Cup days are not all behind him though as, thanks to one of the giantkillings of the third round - a 2-1 defeat of Premier League side Birmingham City - Huddersfield went into the the fourth round draw. And wouldn't you just know it? Who should they get drawn against but the club he spent more than 13 years at as a player and manager, Oldham. As Ritchie says, aside from getting a Premier League team, it was the ideal draw. "For me personally, it is a great tie," he said. "It's fantastic. If we have to go out, I would rather go out to Oldham, but obviously I don't want to do that, I want to beat them."