The Town fans were allocated the tunnel end at the old Wembley, as they had been for the FA Cup final in 1978, and Holland says recalling that atmosphere still gives him goosebumps.

“I just remember seeing blue and white,” he said. ”From the tunnel, we could see the Barnsley red but once you emerged , wow, the noise!

“The most intimidating atmosphere I ever had was in Iran playing for Ireland in the 2002 World Cup play-off and there were about 100,000 there and there were fire crackers and the fans had been in there for four or five hours before the game and had been praying and the noise was ridiculous there.

“But in terms of actual noise, walking out at Wembley and it being just there and seeing the blue and white, that was when you go ‘Wow, this is unbelievable’.”

Ahead of kick-off Holland had the captain’s job of introducing the squad to the dignitaries, something he admits he didn’t particularly enjoy.

“I’ve never been a fan of the handshakes before the game because once you come out of the tunnel, you’ve done all your preparation, you’ve done all your work, your focus is very much on the game,” he said.

“I was never a fan really of all that, even now you come out of the tunnel, you shake hands with the opposition, you shake hands with the referee. I hated it, I didn’t really enjoy that at all.

“I guess that would, not have bothered me, it’s got to be done, it’s one of those things, you have to do it, but it wasn’t something I enjoyed particularly because your game face is on, you’re going to war, you’re not going to be friends with them.

“I’d much rather have come out and just got on with the game because you’ve built it up to such an extent that you don’t want to wait another 10 minutes for the game to kick-off, you just want to get going.”

The match got under way and within six minutes the Blues found themselves behind in slightly unfortunate circumstances.

“He was a good player, Craig Hignett, he had an excellent game as well,” Holland, now 46, said.

“When he caught it you’re thinking it might be on its way in, then it hits the bar and you think ‘Great!’, then flicks off Wrighty and goes in and you think ‘Oh my God! Oh no!’.

“Going behind again, an own goal early on, you do start wondering. There was that feeling but, as I say, it didn’t really affect us much, I think we gradually got back into it and the confidence came back and we had one or two moments ourselves.”

Conceding wasn’t the only early blow for the Blues with striker Johnson, scorer of 23 goals that season, succumbing to his shoulder injury in the 22nd minute.

But the Blues weren’t behind too long with player-coach Tony Mowbray, playing the final game of his career and his first at Wembley, nodded home the leveller from Jim Magilton’s left-wing cross in the 28th minute.

“Mogga scoring, it’s a brilliant story him scoring,” Holland reflected. “And that gets us back into it.”

But just before half-time Barnsley were given a golden opportunity to restore their lead when Richard Wright was adjudged to have fouled Hignett and the Tykes were awarded a penalty.

Darren Barnard, who had scored six times from the spot that season, took the kick and Wright dived to his right to save.

Holland believes that was a pivotal moment in the match: “I think the penalty save on half-time was a big moment. If we’d had gone in 2-1 down, that would have given us everything to do.

“The big moment in the game was that, that penalty save, if that goes in we’d have had a lot to think about at half-time and you probably dwell on it at half-time, I think the pressure is really heaped on us then.

“I would say that that was probably the biggest moment in the game. That was the turning point where I thought, ‘This is our day’.”

Holland doesn’t remember much of George Burley’s half-time team-talk but it clearly had an impact with the Blues making a blistering start to the second half which ultimately won them the game, Richard Naylor scoring in the 52nd minute and Marcus Stewart six minutes later.

“We could do that to teams,” Holland said. “We had real quality and a really good balance about the side so we could put teams under real pressure with free-flowing football and good energy and pressing.

“And that 15 or 20 minutes after half-time was probably the best we played in the game. We came out and I just think that penalty save just before half-time was the bit that changed it. That really did fuel the belief that we could go on and win.”

He added: “It’s amazing really how fate can deal it. David Johnson, who had been so prolific all season, going off and then Bam Bam [Naylor] coming on and having the game of his life.

Photo: Action Images

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