Manchester University is now level with an Oxford college as the most-successful University Challenge entrant after winning the trophy.

The three-man, one-woman team beat University College London (UCL) by 190 to 140 in the final, broadcast on BBC2 on Monday night.

The victory was the fourth in seven years for Manchester, which won in 2012, 2006 and, more controversially, in 2009 after the original winner, Corpus Christi, was disqualified.

The triumph puts Manchester level with Magdalen college, Oxford, which won in 1997, 1998, 2004 and 2011.

This year's Manchester squad had an inauspicious start to the season. Despite going in as favourites, halfway into their first-round match, against Lincoln college, Oxford, they were on minus 10 and risked being the lowest-scoring team in the programme's history. No wonder their coach, the university librarian, Stephen Pearson, counts the latest win as his proudest.

"This is probably the sweetest of all Manchester's victories," he said.

"As soon as I'd put the team together, I thought their breadth of knowledge and speed on the buzzer meant they were good enough to go all the way. Mind you, my faith in them wavered when they were 75 points behind with only three and a half minutes to go in their first-round match.

"But their thrilling comeback to win that match in the last second was the first indication that they had the potential to achieve something special."

Pearson, who is known in the quiz world as the Sir Alex Ferguson of University Challenge, has handpicked Manchester's remarkably successful teams since appearing on the show himself in 1997. He was thwarted at the semi-final stage, and now devotes countless hours to ensuring that his proteges do better than he did.

Pearson has said his dream team would consist of a scientist, a literary expert, a geographer and a historian. But his latest winners are an economist (David Brice, 24), an astrophysicist (Adam Barr, 20), a linguist (the captain, Richard Gilbert, 26), and Deborah Brown, a mature student who is studying pain epidemiology.

On Monday night, the team were set to celebrate at the Ducie Arms, round the corner from the university library, where they were hothoused for success.

The pub has become the unofficial clubhouse for the quiz show demons. Teams past and present gather each Monday to watch the pre-recorded show on the TV, making fun out of each other's expressions and (occasional) daft answers, and reading out insults from Twitter.

Brice, from Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, said the win was satisfying, but so many of his friends had already lifted the trophy that he did not feel particularly special. "Through taking part, I've made friends with so many of the past contestants that we are surrounded by other people who have won," he said.