"I SHOULD’VE SCYTHED DOWN THOMAS AS HE RAN THROUGH IN ’89 - IT STILL RANKLES WITH ME TO THIS DAY"

The ex-Liverpool and Republic of Ireland midfielder recalls a potty-mouthed Ken Bates, disagreeing with Graeme Souness and a visit to the Vatican City...

- Interview Ben Mountain

You started your career at West Ham but hardly played. What happened?

In my last season in West Ham’s youth team, I scored 19 goals from midfield. In today’s football, I'd probably have got a five-year contract on £100,000 a week. But the manager decided to let me go - work that out if you can. It’s still tough to take now.

You joined Fulham in 1982 and would have won promotion, only to lose at Derby on the final day when some of the crowd ran onto the pitch and the game ended prematurely...

Their supporters were making threats all game, doing knife-throat gestures and the like. It was extremely intimidating. In the last 20 minutes they opened the gates so that the fans were literally on the pitch. At one stage, Robert Wilson ran down the left and a fan tackled him knee-high! As the final whistle went, we ran off while getting whacked by Derby fans - I think Jeff Hopkins only had the collar left on his shirt, the rest of it had been torn off. It was the most frightening game I’ve played in.

After signing for Oxford United in 1985, you won the League Cup in your first season. If not for the European ban at the time, you could have played in Europe the following campaign...

The Heysel stadium disaster was such a terrible situation, and something had to be done. But to ban all of the English teams was very, very harsh. We hadn’t done anything wrong, so why were we punished? But to do what Oxford did, lift a trophy in my first season, was brilliant. It was beyond your wildest dreams.

Rangers were interested before you moved to Liverpool. Did threats from Protestant fans affect your decision?