UNEXPECTED EUROPEAN HOSTS

SAM TODD LOOKS AT THE SELECT GROUP OF ENGLISH GROUNDS WHICH HAVE BEEN HOME TO EUROPEAN FOOTBALL BUT NOT A DOMESTIC TOP FLIGHT FIXTURE

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PLYMOUTH ARGYLE:

HOME PARK

The first entry into this select club came on October 5, 1977, when Manchester United took on Saint-Etienne in a Cup Winners' Cup first round tie at Plymouth Argyle's Home Park.

The second leg between the FA Cup holders and the French team was relocated due to fist-fights and bottle-throwing the result of which saw 33 people taken to hospital - before the first match at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard was drawn 1-1.

UEFA initially expelled United from the competition, but the Red Devils were reinstated on appeal. They argued rival supporters were not properly segregated as well as claiming Les Verts fans, who were lobbing stale baguettes at travelling spectators amid an ongoing bakery workers strike back in England, started the fighting and that the riot police made matters worse by overreacting.

However, the reprieve came with a stipulation the return fixture had to be played at least 200 miles from Old Trafford.

"The first idea was to play it in Glasgow but UEFA kiboshed that one," former United defender Arthur Albiston recalled via the Daily Mail ahead of a Europa League rematch with Saint-Etienne in 2017.

With Aberdeen's offer to stage the game thwarted when a Scottish League Cup tie with Rangers couldn't be rescheduled, Glentoran's request to put on a trouble-free tie in Belfast turned down and Arsenal's willingness to rent out Highbury dismissed when Football League overlord Alan Hardaker (who also floated Newcastle as a possible venue) insisted the match could not be played in London, a slice of European glamour came to Plymouth currently the largest English city never to have had a team in the top division - to discourage fans who marred the first leg from attending the second. Tickets were not sold to Red Devils fans.