1986-87 Season - April

Leicester were 18th and six points ahead of us but they had lost 14 of their 17 away games.

The match was virtually settled in the first six minutes when close range strikes from Wharton [4th] and Goddard [6th] gave United a two goal lead.

Both sides had chances to add to the score in an exciting first period but there were no further goals.

The second half fizzled out somewhat but The Magpies were not worried about that as they moved up another place to 20th.

Newly promoted Norwich had performed excellently on their return to the top flight, had lost less games than any other team and were sitting comfortably in 7th place

Kevin Drinkell put The Canaries ahead [17th] but United didn't panic and we got our reward just before the break when Goddard headed an equaliser [41st].

Although the injured McCreery had to be replaced by Darren Jackson The Magpies were in full flight during the second half and goals from Gascoigne [62nd], McDonald [78th] and Darren Jackson [90th] secured a thrilling victory.

A blustery Manor Ground was United's next venue.

In the first half United played down the slope and with the wind at their backs and six minutes before half-time Goddard put us ahead

But with the elements now in the homesters favour it was up to United's defence to battle superbly to maintain the advantage. With Martin Thomas and Peter Jackson performing excellently it looked as though we might hold out against intense pressure. But 11 minutes before the end Ashington born John Dreyer scored a deserved equaliser to deny United a fourth successive victory.

With Manchester City and Charlton both losing the point was enough to keep United in 18th.

A tough visit to Highbury followed and United returned with a fantastic result when Paul Goddard scored the only goal of the match in the first half in front of a sub 18,000 crowd.

The result took us up to 17th and we were now 6 points ahead of the drop zone with 6 games left.

An estimated 6,000 fans were locked outside for the visit of mid table Man United. Alex Ferguson had replaced Ron Atkinson in November and the Mancunians had only registered one win on their travels

A bristling start to the match saw Norman Whiteside and Peter Jackson both booked within the first 10 minutes as the Devils dished out the rough stuff.

United - with Gazza at his peak - hit back in the best way possible as captain Roeder glanced in a header [11th] for his first goal of the season.

With the match continuing in a bad tempered vein Beardsley limped off [35th] and then Strachan brilliantly chipped in an equaliser four minutes later.

When Anderson also had to retire early just after half time reducing United to ten men the visitors started to take control, but eleven minutes from time an offside looking Goddard struck the winner.

We reached the heady heights of 16th.

Our revival came to a juddering halt at Goodison Park against League leaders Everton who followed up their resounding victory on Tyneside with another emphatic result.

Wayne Clarke was the villian of the peace with a second half hat-trick.

We dropped back to 17th but remained 6 points clear of 20th placed Charlton.

David McCreery returned for the visit of Chelsea and Tony Cunningham was drafted in to replace Beardo.

Once again Goddard was the hero when he scored [71st] after exchanging passes with Gascoigne.

The Dunston dazzler was at his infuriating best once again with brilliant ball skills let down by sloppy finishing; he could easily have netted a hat-trick.

It was a a hard fought, bruising battle and the win virtually guaranteed another season of First Division football. Man City and Villa could no longer catch us and Charlton were still six points behind with only three games left.