01 June 2023 , 08:47
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Gary Neville admits he took the rare step of turning to the bottle after Sir Alex Ferguson hooked him in a Manchester derby, which he likened to a "public humiliation".
The Manchester United stalwart captained his boyhood club for the first time in 2002 with Roy Keane absent and was looking to preserve his unbeaten record in derbies. In the end United lost against Manchester City in what would be their final clash at Maine Road.
City enjoyed a 3-1 victory in front of their own fans with Neville making a high profile error to gift Shaun Goater with a chance that put the hosts 2-1 ahead. As if knowing he'd made a mistake wasn't enough, Ferguson wanted to make a point and sent Neville back out after the interval, only to bring him off later in the half.
After the contest Neville, who was among the generation of professionals who opted against alcohol, made the decision to purchase several bottles to get over his disappointment, only to then get another blow days later when he was left out of a European squad.
He told the Overlap on his forgettable derby experience: "So first-half, I think we were losing, then we equalised and then obviously I made this mistake and I went, I went under. He was quite vicious at times the boss, so he sent me out for the second-half, then he subbed me three or four minutes after so I had to walk off in front of the crowd.
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"It was a massive test and that night I went home and I drank. I just got bottles of beer, I was on my own in my home in Bolton and I drank. On the Tuesday he called me into the office and he left me out of the Champions League on the Wednesday against Bayer Leverkusen, I don't think he bought me back in for 10 days."
Gary Neville's afternoon was ended with a second-half substitution (Getty)Neville, who admitted he'd rather have been bought off at half-time, also added: "It was like a public humiliation, it was like being put in the middle of the square and being stoned. It was a public shaming."
The right-back regular also revealed how tensions mounted further at full-time as Ruud van Nistelrooy walked into the dressing room with a City top having chosen to swap shirts with one of his opponents, which led to a Ferguson outburst.
He said: "I mean, all hell broke lose. He [Sir Alex] snapped. And basically said, 'None of you ever, ever swap one of my shirts ever again!' and pointed towards the City shirt. He went absolutely mad, crazy. And then it went quiet."