17/08/96 v Everton (a) 0-2 Premierhip

There was a rumour that Keegan was about to sign someone big when we got on the plane for the Thailand tour. KK disappeared and we knew something was about to happen. It was Terry Mac that broke the news to the lads and we were all delighted. The only problem was Les losing his number 9 shirt. It's funny because I don't think there would have been a problem if someone had asked Les but he was just told that Al would get the number 9 shirt. I think the commercial side of things dictated that Alan would have the shirt but the repercussions went further. Les was given number 10 and Clarkie lost that shirt which he was not happy about. The whole thing could have been dealt with much better.

I don't remember much about the game - the pre-match hype was massive though. The build-up was pretty traumatic for me as well. At the Darren Huckerby game at Lincoln I came off in the second half with a bit of a sore foot. It felt a bit wet in my boot and I looked down to see blood squelching through my lace holes. My heart sank - it was Wembley and the Charity Shield just two days later. I didn't want to ruin my chances so I tried to keep it quiet. When I took my boot off blood started spurting out everywhere - I'd burst a blood vessell in my foot. I just got Derek Wright to stitch it up, quick.

The next day Keegan asked how my foot was and I said it was fine but it was agony to start with and hurt like hell. By the time of the Charity Shield it was OK but I really thought I'd miss it. I had to be careful in training but I made the Everton game. Duncan Ferguson caused us problems that day and I remember he won a very dodgy penalty, pulling down Watto and then falling over him.

All quotes are taken from John Beresford's interviews for NUFC.com