Friday, May 7th, 1997, The Cliff, Manchester, training ground of Manchester United.
Your writer, a then 15-year-old, has somehow found himself – it’s a long story – in the reception area as the players head off after training.
Eric Cantona appears.
‘Eric, can you please sign my shirt?’
‘Yes, no problem, where are you from?’
‘Dundalk.’
‘Dundalk?’
‘Yes, Dundalk in Ireland. I think you might remember it?’
‘Of course I remember it. He made a brilliant save.’
The ‘He’ in question was Eddie Van Boxtel, the Dundalk FC goalkeeper who became the first person to save a Cantona penalty when United toured Ireland and made their first, and to date, only visit, to Dundalk, three years earlier in the summer of 1994.
Thirty years ago today to be exact.
The occasion was a testimonial for Gino Lawless, a two-time League of Ireland winner, an FAI Cup winner and a League Cup winner with the Lilywhites during a seven-year spell that saw him make 224 appearances for the club.
For United, it was the first of a two-game mini-tour of the country that also saw them play Shelbourne at Tolka Park. For Dundalk, it was the second of three pre-season games against English Premier League sides that summer. How times have changed!
The first came two nights earlier against Sheffield Wednesday where goals from John Sheridan, a member of the Irish squad that played in the World Cup in America a few weeks earlier, Gordon Watson and David Hirst gave Trevor Francis’s side a 3-0 win.
Eric Cantona, pictured during Gino Lawless’s Testimonial at Oriel Park
It was the second time the Wednesday manager had graced Oriel Park. In February 1979, a week before he became the first £1 million player when he moved from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest, he was part of the Blues side that met Dundalk in a hastily arranged mid-season friendly at Oriel Park.
Goals from Hilary Carlyle and Tommy McConville gave Dundalk a 2-1 win over a Birmingham team that contained Argentina World Cup winner Alberto Tarantini, with the Democrat reporting that ‘school teacher and part-time footballer Dermot Keely taught Francis a lesson in defence.’
Ironically, Keely was in the opposite dugout when Francis returned in ’94 and showed that he had lost none of his competitive instincts, whipping Van Boxtel off after his mistake led to Hirst’s goal. Two days later, the Dubliner went from zero to hero!
Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel gets down to save from Dundalk FC striker Warren Patmore in Gino Lawless’s Testimonial at Oriel Park
The club’s decision to issue joint tickets for the Wednesday/United games – that also offered Dundalk fans free admission to the opening three league fixtures of the 1994/95 season – didn’t turn out to be the wisest decision but with Liverpool also pencilled in for a game in mid-August, there was a real sense of anticipation ahead of United’s visit.
Alex Ferguson lived up to his promise that he would send over a full-strength team and the United starting XI contained nine of the 11 players that secured the club’s first double by beating Chelsea in the FA Cup final at Wembley two months earlier.
The two absentees were pretty big ones but Roy Keane and Denis Irwin’s presence at the World Cup a few weeks earlier meant they were given extended leave by Ferguson.
Goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, the best in the world at that stage, was joined by a back four of Paul Parker, captain Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister and Lee Sharpe, with Andrei Kanchelskis and Ryan Giggs on the flanks.
Brian McClair, who wore a Dundalk shirt when he played in Barry Kehoe’s testimonial at Oriel Park five years earlier, partnered Paul Ince in the centre of the park while up front the legendary Mark Hughes was joined by The King himself, Cantona, who scored a brace of penalties in the FA Cup final win over Chelsea at Wembley. Oriel Park proved to be a bit more difficult for the Frenchman!
Dundalk FC’s Mick Doohan challenges Manchester United’s Brian McClair in Gino Lawless’s Testimonial at Oriel Park
Despite making formal requests to their respective clubs for the services of Paul McGrath, Steve Staunton (Aston Villa), Kevin Moran (Blackburn Rovers) and Gary Kelly (Leeds United), the Dundalk side, wearing something of an unfamiliar all-white, unbranded kit, contained just one guest, Dubliner Paul Byrne, who was made available by Celtic for the game.
Old reliables Martin Lawlor, Mick Doohan, Tom McNulty and Lawless himself were amongst those who also started while there were a couple of new faces in the Lilywhites squad, including Brian Byrne, a new signing from Leinster Senior League side Glenmore Celtic, who made his debut in the slightly less glamorous setting of a friendly against Rock Celtic two weeks earlier.
The Lilywhites frontline also had a fresh look to it. Tony Loughlan, who went on to become Roy Keane’s assistant at Sunderland, partnered Warren Patmore, a Londoner on loan from Northampton Town, and they exploded into life to leave United shellshocked and two goals down after just 19 minutes!
Loughlan opened the scoring when he delightfully lifted the ball over Schmeichel at the Carrick Road end with a quarter of an hour played and Patmore slid in to guide a Paul Byrne cross past the Dane to leave a lot of people in Oriel Park confused as to whether they should celebrate or not!
“I was lying on the ground and I thought, ‘don’t get up’ because it’ll be offside so it was unbelievable when I saw it was a goal,” said a beaming Patmore after the game. “What a great feeling.”
Dundalk FC midfielder Tom McNulty rides the challenge of Manchester United’s Paul Ince in Gino Lawless’s Testimonial at Oriel Park
United eventually cranked into gear and the unfortunate Stephen Kelly diverted a Kanchelskis cross into his own net to make it 2-1 at the interval but the moment that the game will be remembered for most came in the second minute of the second half. Paul Ince’s forceful run into the penalty area was halted by Lawlor’s stray leg, leaving referee Oliver Cooney with no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Cantona strutted up to take the penalty but Van Boxtel guessed correctly, throwing himself to his left to make a fantastic save. Referring to Chelsea captain Denis Wise’s attempts to play mind games with United’s talisman in the FA Cup final, ‘The Boxer’ joked afterwards that he should have had a wager with the Frenchman.
“When the penalty was given and he (Cantona) stepped up and took the ball off me, I was going to ask him to bet me £100 but I said no in case he scored. I regret it now that I didn’t ask him for the £100!”
A fierce drive from Ince made it 2-2 before Mark Hughes rolled home a Cantona pass to put United in front before Ryan Giggs sealed the win for United when he slipped the ball under Van Boxtel to put the seal on an entertaining game, and a fitting occasion for Lawless, who went off to a standing ovation late on after seeing Schmeichel deny him with a fantastic reaction save.
“If it was any other keeper I might have done but Schmeichel is what, six foot 14 or something, he’s a big fella,” laughed Gino afterwards. “I thought it was going into the top corner and I just saw a big glove coming across.”
Dundalk FC goalkeeper Eddie Van Boxtel saves Eric Cantona’s penalty in Gino Lawless’s Testimonial at Oriel Park
Depending on what report you read, a crowd of between seven to 10,000 were believed to have been in attendance for the Dundalk midfielder’s big day.
“It was great entertainment,” said Lawless. “Six goals, and we managed to get two ourselves. Super. The crowd got their value for money. It was never in the script for us to go 2-0 up,” he added.
“I thought it’d be backs to the wall and we’d be chasing it but it made them step it up a little bit. Alex Ferguson made a guarantee that he would bring over a full squad and he was true to his word. He brought them all over and played them all.”
Unsurprisingly, most of the post-match chat centred on Van Boxtel’s save with Dundalk FC director Nicky Coffey remarking, “We had a goalkeeper who saved a penalty from Eric Cantona. We will never forget that.”
Cantona certainly didn’t.
DUNDALK FC: Eddie Van Boxtel, Stephen Kelly, John Coady, Martin Lawlor, Mick Doohan, Tom McNulty, Paul Byrne (Matt Britton 54), Tony Loughlin (Trevor Donnelly 75), Warren Patmore (Brian Irwin 80), Gino Lawless (Paul Hall 86), Joe Hanrahan (Brian Byrne 54).
MANCHESTER UNITED: Peter Schmeichel, Paul Parker, Steve Bruce (David May 60), Gary Pallister, Lee Sharpe, Andrei Kanchelskis (Chris Casper 69), Paul Ince, Brian McClair, Ryan Giggs (Dion Dublin 69), Eric Cantona, Mark Hughes.
REFEREE: Oliver Cooney.
