The era of Liverpool dominance was reflected in a continuing rise of United's fan base. People accepted Liverpool were a well oiled machine, but nobody said they played beautifully and the scousers couldn't give a flying feck.
United's fans had belief, expectation and a significant passion. The belief and expectation died in about October when the realization was it was going to be a long season with hopefully a good cup run. The passion mirrored the players on the park. We may have not been a well oiled machine, but we tried to win every game. We gave everyone a hard game, even though quality always overcame our passion. Though fans were not happy at losing, we very rarely lost to weaker teams and got some good results against top teams. The derby was a real derby, physical and passionate. The concept of park the bus did not really exist, but Arsenal and Liverpool mastered the back pass and play across the back line to bore the arse off everyone watching.
No internet, so unless you were a regular at matches you did not get a feel for the mood of the fans. When p*ssed off, the grounds we were at turned nasty. I never noticed fans turn on players, and I can only remember the board, Fergie and Sexton receiving anger from the fans.
Winning at all costs maybe for some fans, but not all. Just as there is significant OTT negativity, there is also way too much positivity. You read some posts and it is as though we have reached Pep's Barca level, and being second against a flying City reflects high quality performances from United. Neither are true, and the truth is somewhere between the extremes.
