United's most experienced derby player speaks to Red View about his time at City and his favourite games against them...

Do you still enjoy derbies after all these years?

Yes, it’s great to play in these sorts of games. For the first part of my career we won all of them, more or less, but over the last four or five years it’s been different – they’ve had a bit of success and so have we. They are massive games for the fans and the rivalry is huge, and it's important for us to get the three points.

What are your best derby memories?

I have a few good derby memories but my best one is probably coming back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 in 1993. I came off the bench to set up Eric [Cantona] to make it 2-2, and then Keaney scored late on. That was a great game. Then there was the goal on my full debut against them and scoring the winner at Maine Road in 1996 – there have been so many! The debut ‘goal’ [in May 1991] is down in the history books as being mine, not Colin Hendry’s! I think I may have touched it with my bootlace, but that’s about it… In the past I’ve had goals taken away from me that I thought should have been mine, so I’ll claim it.

What do you recall of your switch from City to United as a 14-year-old?

I was at City for two years but didn’t really enjoy it. I was always a United fan and had the opportunity to train with them for a week. After that the manager came to my house and asked if I would sign for United and there was no hesitation, purely because I was a United fan and had had such a great time the week before. Nowadays the academies are set up for kids from the age of seven or eight, but back then it was the little things that stuck in your mind. I was 12 or 13 and had been to Bury and Preston, and some southern teams were also interested in me. But I just got a good vibe when I came to United – Brian Kidd looked after me, the manager obviously made a big impression, and it was those little things that helped.

There was a feeling that City were getting all the best young talent in Manchester at that time. Is that true?

City had a great youth team around that time with a lot of good players – Paul Lake, David White, Ian Brightwell. Our manager had had a good youth system at Aberdeen and wondered why the biggest club in the world were not getting the best youngsters in their own area. So he rejigged the scouting system and brought in the likes of Kidd and Les Kershaw to get the best players, and you saw the fruits of that in the years after with Scholesy, Becks, myself and other players coming through. United should be getting the best players because of what they can offer – they are not scared to field players at an early age if they’re good enough.