“You’ve just brought back some right memories there. I still don’t feel comfortable playing against you at all.”

“Your belly got in the way there.”

“Well, you know…”

“No, I don’t know, actually. It’s disgusting. Your body is the same as it was 20 years ago. Stop it.”

“Nick, get yourself ready, you’re going on.”

Speaking of Scholesy, actually, he was a right pain in the backside. He was ruthless in training. Say he had a tap-in from a yard out, he would smash it in. If you tried to block it, you’d be taking one in the face. He had no need to do it, but he was training as he played.I could never read what he was going to do, and that’s still the case now. I played against him in a charity game at Oldham a few months ago, and I was still falling for things. He tried to chip me a few times. I said to him at half-time:He just started laughing. That’s Scholesy all over.Even in that game, he was running it. Sliding in, taking people out. I was in stitches laughing at him, but just praying he wouldn’t get the ball or shoot because he was dying to score. He didn’t in the end, and I pulled off a point-blank save from him too, using my gut. He just said:He was an outrageous player. Ruthless. What a talent. He was something else.So I went through all these stages and got to a point where I was working with the likes of Pete and Scholesy, and made it into the first team squad as third-choice keeper. Then I was named on the bench if one of the senior keepers was injured.Then, in August 1999, that day came.The previous season, I’d been third-choice keeper when we won the Treble, and I’d had a good start to 1999/2000 in terms of involvement. Pete had left, I was sub in the Charity Shield against Arsenal, first-team training every day, then I was named on the bench at Highbury, four games into the Premier League season.What a game that was. We went 1-0 down, Roy equalised and the game was so intense. This was at a time when United and Arsenal really was the biggest game around. The tunnel was intense, once the game started tackles were flying in, Fergie and Wenger in the dugouts, Keane and Vieira on the pitch, the rivalry was how it should be.Roy scores again right near the end and we’re going mad. We’re 2-1 up at Highbury with a couple of minutes to go. Arsenal were suddenly throwing everything at us because they were almost out of time. A free-kick comes in, Rai makes a save, but Martin Keown flies in and properly does him with a knee in the face. It’s the most obvious free-kick you’ve ever seen in your life and, of course, the ref awards it.Now, Rai is a tough, tough man. Even now, he’s still absolutely ripped. He’s in his mid-50s but he’s still as fit as he was when he was at United. I played with him in Malta last year in a Legends game, and he’s still the same. It’s disgusting. I told him as much.He just shrugs it off, like:And I’m like:Anyway, he’s always been a strong guy who would never go down without being really injured, so when he stayed down, it was obviously a proper injury.I saw Rob Swire, our physio, motion that he needed to come off. And the gaffer just turned round to me.What?