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On good friday 1915 united faced liverpool at old trafford in what was a vital game for utd.
Struggling in the relegation zone,utd were desperate for the points to avoid the drop into division 2.
Liverpool on the other hand were safe in mid table with nothing to play for.
It was a game utd needed to win and they went on to win 2-0 .
the game might have passed by unremarked upon if it were not for some strange betting patterns .
The ref thought it a peculier match and one or two papers commented on liverpools lack of interest .
There was plenty of jeering at the match and liverpool had missed a penalty but utd won and as liverpools form had been poor of late it was put down to poor liverpool game .
Two weeks later handbills were handed out in the manchester area offering a 50 pound reward for any information to prove that the match had been fixed .
The handbills were published by a firm of bookies called the Football Kings that alleged that a large number of bets involving huge sums had been placed at 7-1 on a 2-0 utd win .
Football betting in those days was common but correct score bets rare .
The football league launched a six month investigation which unearthed clear evidence that the result had been fixed .
3 utd players , 4 liverpool players and a chester player were involved and all were banned from the game for life . Sandy Turnball,Enoch west and Arthur Whalley were the united players and liverpool player Jackie sheldon who had played for utd acted as the go between .
Enoch west denied it and launched an unsuccesful libel action .
At the end of the war all players bans were lifted apart from wests in an act of magnanimity .
west was not forgiven till 1945 by which time he was a bitter old man .
So remember folk nothing is new and grandads generation could be far more crooked than todays .
Struggling in the relegation zone,utd were desperate for the points to avoid the drop into division 2.
Liverpool on the other hand were safe in mid table with nothing to play for.
It was a game utd needed to win and they went on to win 2-0 .
the game might have passed by unremarked upon if it were not for some strange betting patterns .
The ref thought it a peculier match and one or two papers commented on liverpools lack of interest .
There was plenty of jeering at the match and liverpool had missed a penalty but utd won and as liverpools form had been poor of late it was put down to poor liverpool game .
Two weeks later handbills were handed out in the manchester area offering a 50 pound reward for any information to prove that the match had been fixed .
The handbills were published by a firm of bookies called the Football Kings that alleged that a large number of bets involving huge sums had been placed at 7-1 on a 2-0 utd win .
Football betting in those days was common but correct score bets rare .
The football league launched a six month investigation which unearthed clear evidence that the result had been fixed .
3 utd players , 4 liverpool players and a chester player were involved and all were banned from the game for life . Sandy Turnball,Enoch west and Arthur Whalley were the united players and liverpool player Jackie sheldon who had played for utd acted as the go between .
Enoch west denied it and launched an unsuccesful libel action .
At the end of the war all players bans were lifted apart from wests in an act of magnanimity .
west was not forgiven till 1945 by which time he was a bitter old man .
So remember folk nothing is new and grandads generation could be far more crooked than todays .
