Goal of the Day: I is for Irwin

SIGNING FOR UNITED 

Irwin had been part of the Oldham side which had taken the Reds all the way to a replay in the 1990 FA Cup semi-final, and he joined us that same summer for what would turn out to be a bargain fee of £625,000. At the end of his first season at the club, he was part of the squad that lifted the European Cup Winners’ Cup, playing at right-back for much of that campaign.

FINEST MOMENT

Denis was such a consistent performer across his 12-year spell that it’s hard to choose one stand-out. So let’s defer to the man himself.

“Everybody remembers 1999, with the manner we won the treble beating Bayern Munich, but the first year we won the Premier League here in 92/93 it was such a huge weight off the club’s shoulders,” Irwin told Sporting Life last year. “The best night was when we came here and played Blackburn when we’d already won it because Oldham had done us a favour and beaten Aston Villa. That was a huge night, it was a great night and it was a massive relief after what had happened the year before.

”We needed that first title. The fans were desperate for it, the players were desperate for it and the club was desperate for it and I think that was a huge moment and was a great night to be here it really was. And we won, which was quite a surprise after the night we’d had before that game! But it was a joyous occasion.“