I did not have to break stride and it was one of those volleys that you can’t feel leave the boot, the contact was that sweet.”Before long Mark Bowen had headed them into a two-goal lead and an incredible scenario was taking shape. The Germans reduced the deficit, though Norwich (the only British team to have conquered Bayern Munich on their own ground) took a one-goal lead back to Carrow Road. There, after the visitors’ immediate strike, it fell again to that man Goss to bring the scores level on the night and begin the celebration.The fairy-tale continued as the fourth-round draw paired them with Internazionale, but clouds were gathering. Two creditable performances met their match in Dennis Bergkamp’s separate winning goals and within six weeks Walker had been tempted away to Everton while Chris Sutton and Ruel Fox would shortly join a long list of big-money departures. “It was a great shame because if the club had only paid the players and the manager what they deserved I know we could have remained a top 10 Premiership side,” Goss added.Relegation two seasons on from Munich was the cue for the Welsh international to seek new pastures.

He knows now he should have accepted Charlton’s offer; instead he chose Hearts and the Scottish League, but the move was not a success. He returned home last summer, his status as a one-time European hero no longer valid currency. The search for a new beginning sent him training with Colchester and Gillingham but when, in October, his wife Margaret gave birth to identical twins, Joseph and Jacob, three months premature, football had to be forgotten.”Within two hours of birth their weight had gone down to 2lb and it was touch and go. We lived in the hospital for six weeks and it was an emotional time when we took them home for the first time a few days before Christmas. Now they look like any normal seven-month old babies and for that we are very grateful.”Towards the end of last season Goss made a handful of appearances for King’s Lynn in the Dr Martens League. This weekend he is starting a coaching course at Lilleshall but wants to continue playing. Just turned 34, he has always been blessed with remarkable running power and believes he can still offer much more than a wonderful memory of a spectacular Bavarian night..

THERE ARE few certainties in football. But one, even their critics have been reluctantly forced to concede, is that Manchester United, at full strength, possess the flair, the stomach and the durability to overcome virtually any opposition. Only Wednesday night will establish whether their manager has the ingenuity to surmount the potentially disabling effects of the loss of the suspended Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, with Jaap Stam’s condition over 90 minutes uncertain. But at least should United fail against Bayern Munich in the club’s first Champions’ final in 31 years it will not be because of any lack of familiarity with the terrain.

As seasoned travellers, they come into the game as worldly a set of adventurers as Phileas Fogg. Even a young man like Wes Brown, who could make a contribution at the Nou Camp, has a well-stamped passport.
“Europe has been a long learning curve,” said defender Denis Irwin. “It’s taken us two or three years to get to grips with it and we’ve got fairly close without being over-convincing This time, we’ve stepped up on that It’s very tactical in Europe You can feel comfortable, then find yourself 2-0 down. That’s what the lads have had to learn, and we’ve had some hard experiences, but hopefully that’s all stood us in good stead.”In the absence of Keane, Alex Ferguson will require men like Irwin, now approaching 34, to be a galvanising and stabilising influence, particularly should events turn against his team. “I’m quite laid-back, but I’m sure there will be some tension creeping in,” he said. “It’s something you have to cope with as a professional.”He added, with a rueful smile: “The gaffer has learnt, too. He’s had an awful lot of European experience, a lot more than any of us.

He’s settled down a bit; as he’s got older he’s got calmer, definitely during the last two years Apparently he was even worse when at Aberdeen. Poor Neil made the fatal mistake of equivocating that “while the allegations are most probably not true…”, thus prompting a Tory MP to claim that Kinnock sounded “like Klaus Barbie’s defence lawyer”. NO MP ever forgets their maiden speech in the House of Commons. And I certainly wouldn’t let in the poor sap who thought Portugal was one of the Balearic Islands..