I attended Ireland v Malta at Lansdowne Road on May 28th, 1989 and my oul’ fella bought me a programme. When you’re in single figures age wise, you’re a sponge.
Malta presented a formidable obstacle if Ireland were to qualify for their first World Cup finals and I was eager to get the lowdown on our opponents so I paid the utmost attention to Paul Buttner’s pen pictures of the Maltese team in the programme as I sat on the Havelock Square terrace in the 40 minutes before kick-off.
Carmel Busittil was Malta’s danger man up front. He had done us a big favour the previous November by scoring twice against Hungary in a 2-2 draw.
David Cluett was the goalkeeper in Lansdowne Road but had been replaced by Regi Cini by the time of the final qualifier in November. Regi didn’t like John Aldridge’s stop start penalty style, he pointed his finger at Aldridge like that Harry Enfield character in the Dime Bar ad who said “that bloke’s a nutter”.