Mark Robins

Mark Gordon Robins (born 22 December 1969) is an English football manager and former player. As a player he was a striker from 1986 to 2005. After starting his career with Manchester United, he went on to play in the Premier League for Norwich City and Leicester City before playing in the Football League with Reading, Manchester City, Walsall, Rotherham United, Bristol City, Sheffield Wednesday and in Europe with FC Copenhagen, Ourense and Panionios. He finished his career in the Conference National with Burton Albion and was capped six times for the England under-21 side. In 2007, he became manager of Rotherham United, and joined Barnsley in the same capacity in 2009, before leaving in 2011, following differences between him and the board.

Playing career

Manchester United

Robins played a very important part in winning the FA Cup for Manchester United in 1990, which was the first trophy of manager Alex Ferguson's reign at the club, scoring the winning goal in the semi-final replay against Crystal Palace. However, it was an earlier goal that secured Robins a vital part in the history of the club. United were playing away from home against Nottingham Forest (one of the most successful cup teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s) on 7 January 1990, in a third round FA Cup tie. It was widely speculated in the media (but perennially denied by then-Chairman Martin Edwards) that under-pressure United manager Alex Ferguson would have been sacked had United lost and gone out of the Cup, as they were 15th in the league by this stage and had already been eliminated from the Football League Cup. Instead, Robins came off the bench late into the game and scored the winning goal from a Mark Hughes cross. That goal was a turning point in the history of the football club — Ferguson would keep his job and go on to achieve an unmatched run of success at the club over the next 23 years.