“AFC Bournemouth manager Harry Redknapp and his players are today still basking in the glory of creating a soccer sensation which made them the most famed footballers in the land.”

So reported the Evening Echo of January 9, 1984, the Monday morning after the Cherries pulled off one of football’s astonishing giant-slayings.

Not only had they beaten Manchester United 2-0, but commentators had agreed that this was no fluke – AFC Bournemouth really had dominated the match against the reigning Cup holders.

The Echo was there for the build-up to the Round Three match, reporting on January 5 that a fan had offered the Cherries squad a holiday in Spain if they won.

On January 6, the Echo reported that some Bournemouth bars were to close in advance of the arrival of thousands of Manchester United fans.

Among those putting up the shutters was Micawbers, where a spokesman said: “We will be closing all day. We just can’t cope with the numbers which will be in the town.”

On match day, the paper told how 3,000 fans had left Manchester that morning by train. There were around 130-150 police officers on football duty in Bournemouth – around twice the normal number.

The paper printed a picture of the Bournemouth squad dining at La Lupa 2 in Charminster the previous night.

Lorenzo Firpi, partner at the restaurant, said: “The spaghetti should work wonders and the pizzas will do even better.”

But the disheartening news that lunchtime was that skipper John Beck had the flu and would not be playing.

Ahead of the match, United manager Ron Atkinson had described the FA Cup tournament as “the best event of its kind in the world – better even than the World Cup”.

But by the end of the afternoon he may have felt differently.

AFC Bournemouth dominated the game from the outset.

United were no threat until the 57th minute, when Arthur Graham drew a save from Ian Leigh. Bournemouth bounced back, with Milton Graham scoring in the 60th minute and Ian Thompson after 62 minutes.

When it was all over, United’s players were detained for a lengthy discussion in their dressing room before trooping out in silence.

Ron Atkinson emerged to say to the press: “I’ll give you two seconds and that’s it”.

He labelled his team’s performance “a disgrace” and said they owed it to the supporters to win the league championship.

Harry Redknapp, unsurprisingly, was buoyant. “This has got to be the greatest day of my football life,” he said. “But I was always confident we could upset the opposition if we ran and chased and challenged and did not let them settle.”

Echo reporter Colin Smith wrote in Monday’s paper: “What a superb sight it turned out to be as the home team took the play to their illustrious opponents and established a grip on the game which was seldom in danger of being broken. Bournemouth bubbled while United toiled – and were troubled.

“They say the Cup is a great leveller. But it was not the case this time, because the home side outclassed their opposition.”

He cited stand-in skipper Roger Brown and Everald La Ronde, both defenders returning to the side short of match practice, as rivals for the Man of the Match title. Brown was stand-in-skipper.

But he added that defenders Phil Brignull and Chris Sulley had been “no less commendable”.

The national Sunday papers had agreed with that statement, with Ken Montgomery of the Sunday Mirror noting that “every man in the Bournemouth side… was a hero”.

“Once they got their noses in front, they never looked like giving disappointing United a second bite,” he said.

The Daily Star on Monday said: “Atkinson could not hide his shame at seeing his £5m team meekly surrender the FA Cup against a mediocre Third Division team.” But it called Bournemouth’s victory a “triumph for honest graft”.

An Echo headline that day said simply: “Just sinking in – we’ve beaten Man United!”

Vice-chairman Stan Robins said: “We’ve waited a long time for a bit of success and the atmosphere in here is fantastic.”

AFC Bournemouth’s Cup run didn’t last much longer that year.

They lost 2-0 away to Middlesbrough at the end of that month. But the memory of the United fixture would last for decades.

Yet that weekend, the Echo managed to find the only dejected Bournemouth fan.

Cherries supporter Giuseppe ‘Corky’ Cusano of Boscombe had staked £50 with Ladbrokes on a six-result accumulator – and had stood to scoop £1,600.

“Five of them came up. Only Manchester United let me down,” he said.

“In a few weeks time I may be glad that Bournemouth won, but at the moment I feel sick. I must be the only Bournemouth fan who is disappointed.”