When Harry Met Big Ron's United
- Jamie Rooney
- Nov 27, 2025
- 6 min read
The FA Cup has produced countless surprises, but few match the seismic shock of AFC Bournemouth 1984, when Harry Redknapp’s struggling third-tier side defeated Ron Atkinson’s star-studded Manchester United. In a season where Bournemouth were fighting relegation and United boasted Bryan Robson, Norman Whiteside and a full-strength XI, the Cherries delivered a defining FA Cup giant killing. This upset not only transformed Bournemouth’s future trajectory but stands as one of the competition’s most iconic shocks — a moment when a young Redknapp announced himself, and football briefly turned upside down on the south coast.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about anyone looking at the table in the early weeks of this 2025-26 season is not just that they would have seen Bournemouth sitting above the mighty Manchester United, but that they would have grown accustomed to it. After all, the south-coast side finished six places above them the previous season.
Yet for the best part of football history, the idea of Bournemouth being a peer of United – let alone besting them – would have been fanciful.
That context maybe lost today, but back in January 1984 it was uppermost in peoples’ minds when the two side were pulled out of Graham Kelly’s velvet red bag together.
United were FA Cup holders and under Ron Atkinson had assembled a side that was again challenging in the league and boasted a string of internationals – none more so than England’s Captain Marvel Bryan Robson.
They had, though, already exited the League Cup to third tier opposition Oxford United. Unlikely though it sounds, this Oxford side was in its ascendancy and would go on to secure the first of two consecutive promotions that year – claiming several notable cup scalps along the way.
Bournemouth, however, were not.
They were struggling at the bottom end of the third tier. That was not unusual. Since joining the Football League in 1923, Bournemouth had never made into the top two divisions, and since the scrapping of the South and North third division structure, had spent most of their time flitting between the two lower divisions.
If anything makes me doubt the validity of Icke’s subsequent Nostradamus-like predictions and claims that a cabal of shape-shifting lizardmen are running the planet, it is his failure to foresee the genuine history that happened right under his nose at Hereford that day
However, change was afoot at Bournemouth, where a bright new manager was cutting his teeth.
Harry Redknapp had somewhat bizarrely begun his coaching career as assistant manager at the other team in Oxford, non-league outfit Oxford City. Even more bizarrely he was assistant to England World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore. Redknapp was brought in to handle the coaching side – and to hold the fort while Moore headed to Hungary for the summer to film Escape to Victory.
Redknapp then took a similar assistant manager role to David Webb at Bournemouth before, in October 1983, picking up his first job as manager. Three months later Bournemouth pulled off the most unlikely FA Cup win, beating Man United 2-0.
This being 1984, this was of course a full-strength United side featuring Robson et al.
The Bournemouth side was full unknowns at the time, players who largely went on to remain unknown. This was to be the high point for Bournemouth’s two goalscorers. Milton Graham dropped down a division to Chester before injury ultimate cut his Football League career short in 1990. Injury too caused Ian Thompson to retire from the professional game within a couple of years, though he continued to play non-league with Salisbury whilst embarking on a new career as a teacher.
For Man United it was business as usual the following season. They won a second FA Cup in three years by beating Everton thanks to Norman Whiteside’s winner, a cup run which started by United beating Bournemouth 3-0 at Old Trafford as lightning failed to strike a second time.
As for Bournemouth, the FA Cup win was a springboard. Under Redknapp. Bournemouth went on to reach the second tier in 1987, where they stayed for three years before returning to their natural resting place. Indeed, they were not to beat their 1989 12th place finish until their unlikely rise from the brink of extinction and relegation from the Football League back to the Championship in 2013. Once there, they promptly made an even more unlikely breakthrough to the Premier League under Eddie Howe’s tenure.
In many ways, Bournemouth’s win fits a regular narrative of the great FA Cup shocks in that they regularly feature a star on the way up – or on the way down.
Take another great shock of the 1980s. Two years after Bournemouth had humbled Man United, Denis Smith’s York City did the same to Arsenal in the fourth round. This game already had a key FA Cup shock ingredient in requiring fans to clear the snow from the pitch to get the game on (though sadly it was missing the orange ball).
When York won themselves a last-minute penalty, up stepped Keith Houchen to claim the first of an FA Cup trilogy which proves what comes around goes around. Houchen followed this with FA Cup final diving header immortality for Coventry two years later, before ending with the ignominy of a bit part substitute appearance in their defeat to non-league Sutton United.
That Sutton win was one of string of notable non-league triumphs, of which the most-memorable was surely Hereford United’s victory over Newcastle United – where a Ronnie Radford rocket launched a Parka invasion in the Edgar Street mud.
While this is one of the FA Cup’s most iconic moments, imagine just how much more so it would have been if David Icke – Hereford’s reserve keeper at the time – had been the one beaten by Radford’s long-range strike? If anything makes me doubt the validity of Icke’s subsequent Nostradamus-like predictions and claims that a cabal of shape-shifting lizardmen are running the planet, it is his failure to foresee the genuine history that happened right under his nose at Hereford that day.
At the other end of the spectrum, in January 2003 Everton’s fate seemed sealed even before they kicked a ball when they were drawn away at a Shrewsbury Town managed by Goodison legend Kevin Ratcliffe. Throw in a last hurrah for double goal-scorer Nigel Jemson, and the narrative was set. Sadly for Ratcliffe and Shrewsbury that was as good as it got, as a sharp loss of form saw Ratcliffe lose his job and Shrewsbury their Football League status by the end of the season.
There is one FA Cup shock though that combines all these themes. In 1975 when the might Burnley lost to Wimbledon. Not only were Wimbledon non-league at the time, they like Bournemouth embarked on a run through the leagues which incredibly meant that a decade later they would themselves be considered the giant.
The Bournemouth side was full unknowns at the time, players who largely went on to remain unknown
The man who led them there, Dave Bassett, played in that Burnley shock – though he was to have a more telling impact in the next round against Leeds United, where his own goal was to be the difference between the two sides. That, however, came in a replay after a heroic 0-0 draw at Elland Road – including Dickie Guy saving from the rarest of things, a softly struck Peter Lorimer penalty.
But unlike many of these other great moments, Wimbledon’s win at Burnley was not to be immortalised. Legendary Burnley chairman, local butcher-done-well Bob Lord, was a vehement opponent to the embryonic television coverage of football. Even after the Match of the Day cameras were allowed into the ground, Lord refused access to Burnley games. As a result, no footage exists of Wimbledon’s win.
Lord’s legacy, though, continues today, even more widely than the stand at Turf Moor that bears his name. It was Lord who insisted on the 3pm Saturday TV blackout, which remains in place even now.
How We Ranked Them
We have five categories of greatness from our five-star All-Time Greats category at the top to our one-star Blinkered Greats category at the bottom. No debate needed.
**
BLINKERED GREATS
Listen To The Podcast
Our south-coast correspondent Jamie Wilson joined us to ponder how this game ranked in the realms of FA Cup shocks and how on earth Bournemouth have become the leading side on the south coast.
Further Listening
How good were the Manchester United side Bournemouth beat? Red Devils fan Richard Edwards doubled up on the United supporters to help guide us through Ron Atkinson’s reign at Old Trafford.
A positive Oxford fan would focus on the incredible 5th round win as a fourth-tier side against Blackburn Rovers, a giant-killing team that included Ron Atkinson. However, masochist as I am, I relived Aldershot 3-0 third round win in 1987 against a then top-flight Oxford United. Unlike most cup shocks, fans protested the increased ticket price and the game was played out in front of a paltry 2,000 fans in a game that hastened John Aldridge’s departure from the Manor. Neither did it do Aldershot much good, as within five years they had gone out of business.
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