England v Australia in the first ever T20 international in this country at Southampton - the first fixture in the 2005 Ashes summer. England batted first and made a decent but not invincible score of 179 from 20 overs. The ground was packed with a capacity crowd of around 12,000 on a blazing hot June evening. A warm up match between two all-stars/veterans type teams had taken place with the apparent aim of getting plenty of people into the ground early and not having everyone arrive at once, but instead of people going straight from work for the main event it appeared most had just taken the whole day off work for an all-day drinking session!

There was a real party atmosphere that reached fever pitch as Australia's innings totally disintegrated. A bloke sitting just in front of me went to the beer tent with their score at 20/0 and by the time he returned they were 21/4 ! shortly afterwards they were 28/7 and it was all over. (They eventually finished 79 all out giving England victory by precisely 100 runs.)

This match really set the tone for the whole summer and I think it was the day that made the England team really believed they could regain the big prize for the first time in almost twenty years.

A few of the cameo moments I recall were as follows: Brett Lee bowling breathtakingly fast in the early overs. Geraint Jones, opening the batting, hitting Lee straight back for a four that nearly took the bowler's head off - to say it virtually parted his hair is not an exaggeration. Andrew Strauss frustrating the Aussie bowlers by stepping right across his stumps to flip balls from outside off stump over the top of the bails to the fine leg boundary. Kevin Pietersen dropping several straightforward catches! Jon Lewis doing the bulk of the damage to the Aussie innings with four wickets on what I think may have been his first international in any format, although I'm not certain of that. And one of the Aussie fielders (I think it was Michael Clarke) making a series of blunders as he was moved around the boundary from one position to another and the ball just kept "following" him! Of course he got a fully sympathetic and understanding rsponse from the home crowd!

Istanbul 2005 and Widnes' first game in SL.

Besiktas were robbed. Galatasaray should never have had that penalty

You're not one of them that had to get let back into Wembley, are you?


Most memorable ones that I missed:
England winning the Ashes
United winning the European Cup '99 and '08 (I'm not counting the one I wasn't born for!)
United becoming World Club Champions in '99 and '08


Most memorable ones attended:
Lancashire bowling Yorkshire out at Headingley in 2002 for 81. Applauding Dave Byas onto the pitch from the Western Terrace was one of the main highlights.
Manchester United beating Juventus 3-0 at the Delle Alpi in 2003. Marvellous.
FC United of Manchester's first ever game at Hilton Park, 2005.

'99 Champions League final. No doubt.

'That' penalty shoot-out in the '08 was brilliant, going from seconds away from loosing it to win it was fantastic, but I think the '99 was just special!

Last day/morning of the Edgbaston test of the 2005 Ashes. Absolute despair and head in hands turned into a moment I'll never forget.

On the flip side, I was at the MCG on Boxing Day 2006 when Warne got his 700th test wicket in front of his home state fans. The bugger. Great moment though.

Probably won't be on anyone else's radar unless you were there but the game where Barnsley clinched promotion to the Premiership by beating Bradford City was pretty special. We lost the match and despite us being perilously close to being relegated our fans stayed on to celebrate with the Barnsley supporters. Chants of 'Yorkshire,Yorkshire' from all sides of the ground. I remember forum posts from Barnsley supporters at the time saying they had tears in their eyes when they saw the away fans celebrating with them. In turn the Barnsley fans applauded us as our coaches left the ground. You wouldn't see that in Rugby League!

It was more in response to the 'could there be a more thrilling last 3 mins' quote...plus i never saw either of the games above (tho i wasn't born for the arsenal one tbf) did you watch the re-run of it on...i think eurosports the other day?

Mate I was on a countdown until you mentioned that one . On a seperate note ESPN Classic have been running the York v Arsenal tie all week, now that was proper FA Cup football. A full house, snow on the pitch & late drama. You won't see the like of that again these days.

I'm nothing if not predictable, but it is our most recent glimpse of glory, even though it is now an incredible 12 years ago. Good old Pat McGibbon.


I have seen the Arsenal game in recent times on DVD. No ESPN classic here at JD Towers, so I'll just settle for the memories. I have the enormous pleasure of working alongside Keith Houchen on matchdays at the Crescent. Top bloke.
Graeme Murty's winner against Everton in 1996 was a good one as well. We were on our way out on away goals (1-1 at Goodison in the first leg and it was 2-2 at the time) before he cut in from the right and fired it into the far corner.
I also saw Wayne Hall score with his right foot. That didn't happen often. It didn't happen that often with his left either, now I mention it.