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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Robert Hynes

Roy Keane's incredible debut recalled by teammate

Brian Laws has recalled Roy Keane's incredible Nottingham Forest debut.

A young Keane made his debut under Brian Clough at Anfield early on in the 1990-91 and it was extremely eventful.

Laws told FourFourTwo: "We were playing Liverpool away, and this young kid was sitting on the bus.

"Brian Clough would regularly take kids with us to get experience. I don’t think anyone spoke to him – no one knew who he was.

"We got to Anfield and, as I thought, he was just pushing the skips into the dressing room and helping to put the kit out.

"Halfway through, he was putting the No7 shirt out when Cloughie stopped him and said, ‘Now, son, I want you to try that shirt on.’ We all started laughing, and this poor lad was embarrassed.

"He reluctantly put it on, as though he wanted to get it off as quickly as possible.

"Cloughie said, ‘You look a million dollars – you look so good, you’re playing’. We still thought it was a wind-up, but he was deadly serious.

"He said to me, ‘You look after him: he’s playing right wing’. I thought, ‘What? I’m playing against John Barnes, and now I’ve got a rookie playing in front of me?’

"I introduced myself. I didn't even know his name - I had to ask him. I said, 'Look, Roy, keep it simple and I'll try to talk you through it'.

"But within five minutes of kick-off, Roy had stamped on Barnes, taken out another player, and when John was on the floor he just went, 'F*** off' in his face.

"There were five minutes of me looking after Roy, then he looked after me for the rest of the game. He was like a rat up a drainpipe, all over the place. It can be frightening to go out there at Anfield, but he had no fear. He didn't care who he was playing against: he would have a go at them. What a debut.”

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