An impudent flick got the Old Trafford crowd off their seat, a peach of a cross from Paul Scholes' through ball carved an opportunity for Ryan Giggs, and seconds later the ball was in the net.

Half an hour in and Manchester United looked to have uncovered another academy gem to go with the flurry of Fergie fledglings already beginning to make a name for themselves in the first team. It was September 1995, the famous 'you'll never with anything with kids' season and the newest kid on the block was Terry Cooke.

The Brummie winger produced a man of the match display on debut as Bolton were beaten 3-0 and left to warm applause from the home fans when he was replaced in the final quarter. Starting on the right alongside a clutch of his fellow class of 92 graduates, Cook seemingly had the world at his feet. Yet that autumn afternoon would be his only league start for United.

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“After my debut I thought that was it, I’d done it," he said, recalling the moment. "Then, the next week, I didn’t play. I was in squads and made a few more appearances and then I went to Sunderland on loan. I played for two championship-winning teams in the same season and never got a medal. That summed up the way my career went. It was very frustrating."

United won the league in 1996 with a core of young players Cooke called friends and team-mates coming through the ranks. But while David Beckham, Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers became household names, Cooke's career was hampered by injury and ill-fortune, a serious injury in a reserve game against Sheffield Wednesday the following season severely hampering his progress.

"I was stretchered off and, in the dressing room, Alex Ferguson asked if I would be alright for Saturday, because I was going to be starting in the Premiership," he said, speaking in 2014.

"I had been playing well. I didn’t know what I had done, I thought I had twisted my knee and then the physio turned round and said I wouldn’t be playing for the rest of the season. I’d snapped my cruciate.”

He didn't return until early in the 1998-99 season and while United went on to lift the Treble in an unforgettable campaign, Cooke joined Wrexham on loan. An impressive festive showing against Manchester City in the third tier prompted Joe Royle to come in for the winger and he swapped red for blue, first on loan and then in a permanent move.

A few months later he was on the wing for City at Wembley in that famous comeback play-off final victory over Gillingham, netting a spot kick in the shoot-out success. That was a sliding doors moment for the Blues and kickstarted their rise back up the divisions.

It came four days after Cooke's pals at United had lifted the European Cup. The winger may have even been in the squad had he stayed put, but a desire for first time football and to make up for lost time prompted his exit and he was now creating history for himself on the other side of Manchester, an achievement in itself after his injury misfortune.

“I was told I’d never play again," he said in 2020 when recalling his move to Maine Road. "I was out for 12 months and wanted to get back on my feet, so I went to Wrexham for a month.

“I did okay, but my best game was on Boxing Day ’98 against City, even though we got beat 1-0. Joe Royle must have found out my loan period was coming to an end and, at the time City didn’t have an out and out right winger. I think I was the missing piece in a way.

“Joe enquired about bringing me in on loan. I could have stayed at United and been part of the squad going around Europe, but I was a young kid and I wanted to play football.

“I came to Maine Road – playing in front of a full house every week even in the second division – and the rest is history."