Background: The table-topping Reds were locked in a title tussle with Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea and the sides were separated by just six points after the final international break of the campaign. With tricky away trips to Goodison Park, the Etihad Stadium and Stamford Bridge on the horizon, United were targeting a win to maintain the gap at the top of the table when we entertained Mark Hughes’s Rovers at Old Trafford, in front of a then-record Premier League crowd of 76,098 people.
The goal: Matt Derbyshire’s 29th-minute tap-in had stunned the Theatre of Dreams into silence and, with time ticking, the Reds needed a response.