"Steve was in charge and while we respected him, we took absolute liberties," recalls Cole. "We just weren't scared of him like were with the manager. He gave us curfews on nights out but we just ignored them. He'd only been at the club for six months and hadn't built up the authority to discipline us."

United's first game was in the 95,000 capacity MCG against an under-strength Socceroos. A crowd of 1,500 watched United train the day before the match, many of them complaining about the high ticket prices of between $50 to $70 set by Rivkin to recoup his outlay. The controversial businessman was convicted of insider trading four years later in 2003 and took his own life in 2005, but he was happy then with the 70,000 crowd which showed to see United triumph 2-0.

The pitch cut up badly and the stand-in United captain Denis Irwin (regular captain Roy Keane was also absent from the trip) complained: "The surface was hardly conducive to good football. You needed three touches when normally you'd need just one and that doesn't help."

The game also saw the debut of new United goalkeeper Mark Bosnich.

"Bozza had taken the hardest job in football, following Peter Schmeichel," recalls Yorke. "I knew Bozza was a big character who was up for the challenge and it was great to have my old Villa team-mate in the team."

United flew north to Sydney on a luxury plane chartered by the promoter, where the players began to let their hair down.

"We had a few good nights out and broke the curfew that had been put on us," grins Butt. "We stayed out until four in the morning in Sydney at a big casino nightclub called Star City. I was with (Ryan) Giggsy and we were ducking and diving up and down fire escapes so that we didn't get caught going back to our rooms late. We got away with it, but Yorkey and Bozzy got caught coming in at five o'clock. They got bollocked."

"There cannot be anywhere on the planet with as many beautiful women as Australia," adds Yorke, who unsurprisingly joined Sydney FC in 2005. "We'd been under a strict lockdown in Melbourne, with no visitors allowed and security guards stationed in the lifts just to make sure. I beat security with the oldest trick in the book - bribery - to sneak a girl into my room."

By Sydney, Yorke was again ignoring the curfews and returning home very late and taking in all that the lively city had to offer. United had a training session at the Olympic Stadium the following day.

"We were stretching on the pitch, then I heard someone snoring," recalls Butt. "It was Yorkey. He'd fallen asleep. Everyone was giggling, but nobody woke him up. He was fast asleep, but he was still sat up. After four or five minutes of stretching we got up to jog, leaving Yorkey asleep in the middle of the field."

Cole also remembered this - he'd tried to help his strike partner out. "I was shouting, 'Yorkey! Yorkey! Yorkey!' He made a bit of a noise as if he'd heard us, but he was comatose."

"Yorkey snoozing in the middle of the Olympic Stadium remains the funniest thing I've ever seen in football," laughs Butt. "The story got back to the manager, who came out to meet us a few days later in Hong Kong. He went nuts."

"I'm lucky that I don't get hangovers," laughs Yorke, " but after twenty minutes my head was starting to spin. I was relieved when we started to do some stretches and thought I'd take the opportunity of lying down for a minute to stretch. Big mistake! Within two seconds I was fast asleep. The next thing I knew I was being drenched with water and I woke to find the lads killing themselves!" 

Sydney offered even more delights.

"We were invited on Rivkin's big yacht in Sydney Harbour," remembers Cole. "You don't always have the time to reflect when you are a footballer, but I was looking at the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House thinking, 'How lucky am I that being good at football has given me this?'."

Cole's sunny mood would darken following the Sydney game, which United won 1-0, again against the Socceroos. The crowd of 78,000 ensured that Rivkin made a profit and his audacious gamble paid off, but the game is chiefly remembered for a poor challenge by Cole on Simon Colosimo.

  "It all went wrong," recalls Cole. "I was involved with a challenge with a young player. The ball was in the air and I was watching the ball. The next thing I knew the player was underneath me and I was somehow standing on him. He got a serious injury."

Continues On Next Page...