Dubai: It was deep into ‘Fergie time’. And there was definitely no Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to come on and win it.

That would come because instead Alex Ferguson (and there was definitely no Sir before his name back then) turned to Mark Robins on the substitute bench and asked an unheralded striker to not only win him the FA Cup third round match against Nottingham Forest (and this is when Forest were still a team, Brian Clough and all) but also save his job.

The date was January 7, 1990.

Can you imagine January 7, 2017 a manager who had been three and a bit seasons at Manchester United — having not won a single trophy in that period — and found themselves 15th in the league?

Heck, let alone Manchester United, it’s highly doubtful whether any Premier League manager would still have a job.

Yet, that’s the position Ferguson found himself in on third round FA Cup weekend 1990.

Robins’ winner bought the Scotsman time and the next day’s newspapers changed from ‘Red Man Walking is a Dead Man Walking’ to ‘Fergie Saved!’

Robins would go on to net the semi-final winner against Oldham Athletic, and full-back Lee Martin, another future journeyman who made a momentous mark in Manchester United history, claimed the victorious strike in the FA Cup final replay against Crystal Palace.

And, hey presto, Ferguson had the first of 38 trophies at United — which went on to tally two European Cups, including, of course, “and Solskjaer has won it”, 13 Premier League titles, and five FA Cups.

Interesting to note though that United still managed to finish only 11th in the league that year.

Louis Van Gaal earned an FA Cup win and European football and still couldn’t keep his job at Old Trafford.

Those were halcyon days back in 1990 — though certainly not for Manchester United, they were to come — but for the FA Cup and in particular the romantic notion of the third round.

That time of the New Year when the non-league butchers, bakers and candlestick makers could stun the big guns and it would be a genuine shock.

Nowadays Premier League managers from about 10th in the table down find the FA Cup a damaging distraction from the importance of ensuring top-flight survival. Or if they’re top half, chasing the cash of Champions League spots.

Is any manager going to be sacked if they lose a third-round match? David Moyes at Sunderland if they lose to Burnley? Mark Hughes at Stoke if he loses to Paul Lambert’s lower league Wolves? (Lambert of course being a manager who once admitted the FA Cup was a trophy his then Premier League Aston Villa could “do without”).

Even Arsene Wenger if Arsenal are shocked by Championship Preston?

Very unlikely.

Yet, Wenger — the joint record-winning manager of the FA Cup — knows more than most the importance of the old trophy. Have no doubt Aaron Ramsey’s extra time winner in the astonishing 2014 3-2 final win over Hull City kept the Gunners boss in his long-held job.

Sitting fifth in the league, and in perhaps his last season at Arsenal, is probably why he has pledged to play a “90 per cent” full-strength team against Preston.

But although a third round shock at Old Trafford on Saturday would definitely be discarded as a disappointing blip for Jose Mourinho’s ever-improving team, rather than a managerial sacking offence, if former Red Devil Jaap Stam’s Reading are holding his old side with 10 minutes left … do cast your eye to the Manchester United substitute bench.

And finally …

Manchester United are used to being on the box but how’s this for a statistic ... the Daily Mail reports that the Red Devils’ clash with Reading will be the club’s 55th consecutive televised match in the FA Cup — a record which stretches all the way back to 2005.

The big picture during that run is United have won 36, drawn seven and lost 11.