English soccer witnessed the end of an era on Sunday as Alex Ferguson signed off as Manchester United manager with an extraordinary 5-5 draw at West Bromwich Albion in his 1,500th and final game.

On a sun-kissed afternoon at the Hawthorns, the 71-year-old Scot who propelled United to the summit of English soccer on 13 occasions bowed out with a hectic game full of the attacking soccer that he loves.

The champions led 3-0, and then 5-2, only for West Brom to score three times in 5 minutes, with substitute Romelu Lukaku completing a second-half hat trick in the 86th minute to deny Ferguson one last victory.

It was the first 5-5 draw in the English top flight since September 1984 - two years and two months before Ferguson took charge of United for the first time in a 2-0 loss at Oxford United on November 6, 1986.

Ferguson, who amassed 38 trophies in 26 and a half years at Old Trafford, will be joined in retirement by 38-year-old midfielder Paul Scholes, who made his 718th and final appearance for the club as a 69th-minute substitute.

The Scot was welcomed onto the pitch with a guard of honor from both sides and the hosts' generosity did not stop there, as slack defending enabled United to establish a 3-0 lead inside 30 minutes.

In the sixth minute, Javier Hernandez crossed from the right and the untracked Shinji Kagawa beat United old boy Ben Foster with a near-post header.

Three minutes later, United were again afforded space on the hosts' left flank and a drilled cross from Antonio Valencia was inadvertently turned in by floundering defender Jonas Olsson.

Alexander Buttner exploited further inattention from the home defense to dispatch a crisp shot into the bottom-right corner from Tom Cleverley's pass on the half-hour.

James Morrison pulled a goal back in the 40th minute by sweeping in a Graham Dorrans cross and Lukaku cut the deficit to a single goal by steering a low shot past Anders Lindergaard 5 minutes after coming on at the break.

United responded immediately, however, with Robin van Persie converting a Valencia cutback to claim his 26th league goal of the season before Hernandez turned in a low cross from substitute Ryan Giggs to make it 5-2.

Victory would have seen United equal their best-ever Premier League points tally of 91 in a 38-game season, but instead, Youssouf Mulumbu and Lukaku scored twice within a minute before Lukaku bundled in Marc-Antoine Fortune's cross with 4 minutes left to complete an incredible comeback.