In the dressing rooms, too, the United players at least were in the right frame of mind."I think we could have won the League the year before," remembers Martin Buchan, the United captain "But we got distracted by the Cup. Then, on that day, certain players felt all they had to do was turn up to win it. All that lay in their path was a young United side and their mouthy manager, who had seen off Southampton, Aston Villa and Leeds on a character- building tour to the final.Back in 1977 the rivalry between the fans of Liverpool and United had yet to degenerate into the levels of over-wrought hostility which later involved CS gas attacks and mass knife fights. Although the geographical proximity meant that sizeable bands of followers would regularly make the trip to each other's grounds, providing the opportunity for large- scale confrontations, there was nothing particularly bilious behind any punches that might have been thrown: it was simply routine in the late 1970s.Thus on the trip down to London the atmosphere in service stations and on the platforms of Crewe and Euston was charged with a kind of grudging mutual respect (though in truth United had a lot more to respect in Liverpool than vice versa). League champions and in the final of the European Cup, the FA Cup final was set up as the second leg of a substantial treble. His team's early form in 1976/77 merely underlined how unlikely a boast it was.

The season before, just promoted from the Second Division, a young United team had played with abandon, finishing third in the League. In the autumn of 1976, however, it looked as though they were to be found out. Lightweight in midfield, eccentric in defence, by December they were well off the championship pace. Docherty was advised by the press that his defence needed tightening, so he went out and bought Jimmy Greenhoff, a wily inside-forward from Stoke instead. It was a move as cunning as some of Greenhoff's off-the- ball runs, the new player immediately earned his place in United fans' affection scoring at will in an FA Cup run which increasingly began to appear pre-ordained.Liverpool, meanwhile, were at the beginning of 12 years of domestic and European domination. John Toshack, the poet laureate of football ("Easter time is very vital.

That's when we decide the title") had gone from the season before, but elsewhere the team was stronger than ever: Terry McDermott, the role model for Harry Enfield's scousers, ran affairs with Ray Kennedy and the young Jimmy Case. Up front the perma-permed Kevin Keegan, in his last year at Liverpool before deserting for the big money available on the continent, was partnered by David Johnson and Steve Heighway The defence was based on Tommy Smith and Emlyn Hughes. Off the pitch they loathed each other ("I thought he was a right twat, as it happens," the ever couth Smith was recently quoted as saying) but on it, none were allowed past without compromise or a good kicking.By May of 1977, with that part of the country that was not festooned in safety pins preparing (it seems incredible now) for an outburst of royalism to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee, Liverpool were already crowned the best team in Britain. Hyperbole and Tommy Docherty are not unaccustomed bed-fellows.

In 1976, after Manchester United's feeble and enfeebling performance in the Cup final against Southampton, Docherty sought to pacify the 250,000 fans who filled the centre of Manchester to welcome back his team of losers with some soothing words: "We'll be back next year," he announced from the balcony of the Town Hall in Albert Square, "and this time we'll win it." It seemed a wildly optimistic gesture, flying in the face of all available evidence, chance or expectation and thus entirely characteristic of Docherty. Punters should start composing their sick notes.THE DERBY (Epsom, 8 June): Coral: 6-1 Even Top, 7-1 Mark Of Esteem & Nash House, 8-1 Alhaarth, 10-1 Dushyantor; Ladbrokes: 4-1 Mark Of Esteem, 5-1 Even Top, 7-1 Alhaarth & Nash House, 8-1 Dushyantor; William Hill: 5-1 Even Top, Mark Of Esteem & Nash House, 8-1 Alhaarth & Dushyantor, 16-1 Micks Love.. Nash House can go whoosh but the other horses just do it."He's bred on the same lines as Spectrum so we're not sure if he'll get the trip, but the way he works at home convinces me that he will."Nash House will also be on the Knavesmire, where his opponents in the Dante Stakes a week today will include Henry Cecil's Storm Trooper York is becoming increasingly unmissable. "He is the one at home that's got the real class and the turn of foot. Legal Right, Astor Place, Heron Island and High Baroque are more gallopers who haven't got that electrifying turn of foot.