Everyone thinks Gareth Southgate is a nice guy but he tried to break my leg – he deserved stamp, reveals Roy Keane
MANCHESTER UNITED legend Roy Keane doesn’t regret stamping on Gareth Southgate in 1995 because he “tried” to break his leg.
United took on Crystal Palace in an FA Cup semi-final replay at Villa Park 28 years ago and disaster struck in the second half.
Southgate, who played for Palace at the time, moved the ball forward in midfield where Keane stopped him with a rough challenge.
The now England boss didn’t take kindly to that and lunged at the legendary midfielder with both legs.
And notorious hardman Keane wouldn’t let that slide as he then stamped on the former defender’s torso twice.
That led to a major scuffle between the two sets of players until the referee sent the Republic of Ireland legend and Southgate’s team-mate Darren Patterson off.
The now Sky Sports pundit joined fellow legends Gary Neville, Ian Wright and Jill Scott and looked back at that incident.
The panel discussed the 52-year-old’s disciplinary record and revealed he was sent off a total of 13 times during his 17-year career.
And United‘s legendary captain insists he has absolutely no regrets looking back.
The Irish star is especially not sorry about the incident with Southgate as he insists the Aston Villa legend tried to hurt him that night when the Red Devils won 2-0 and qualified for the final.
The ex-Nottingham Forest ace admits he has buried the hatched with the former England international but insists people are not totally right when they assume he is a “nice guy”.
Keane said during the latest edition of Stick to Football: “I don’t regret any of them.
“Obviously the one everyone remembers is the [Alf-Inge] Haaland one. I got sent off [against] Newcastle a couple of times with your mate [Alan] Shearer.
“Sent off at Blackburn, sent off once for Ireland, sent off against Chelsea…”
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Neville intervened: “Against Crystal Palace, Gareth in the semi-final…”
Keane responded: “Gareth… Gareth deserved that. Gareth lunged at me.”
Wright nodded in agreement: “He’d done the same with me at Villa.”
Keane continued: “Everyone thinks Gareth is a nice guy [but] he lunged at me. He tried to break my leg. I can tolerate him now, yeah.”