Chris Freestone: My only Town goal stunned Fergie's men

Chris Freestone bagged Town's goal in an 8-1 pre-season friendly defeat against Sir Alex Ferguson's Premier League champions in summer 2000.

United had two fixtures that day and so Fergie split his squad. But it was still a formidable team that took the field on a baking day at the old Gay Meadow, with Champions League final scorers Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer plus Nicky Butt among a star-studded line-up.

And former Middlesbrough, Northampton and Hartlepool forward Freestone admits it remains one of the best moments of his career.

Chance

"It was definitely up there as one of my highlights because of the standard of the opposition and the fact that I knew I would probably only have one chance to score," said Freestone, now 44 and the national coaching development manager for the Football League Trust.

"Knowing I never scored for Shrewsbury in a competitive game as well in my time there, it ranks very highly. I didn't have the best of times at the club but I enjoyed it – the fans were superb and the players were brilliant."

Losing 8-1 suggests it was a game to erase from the memory banks. But given the profile of the opposition, Freestone recalls it well.

"United had a mixed squad because they had two games on the same day, but I remember seeing Teddy Sheringham in the car park and I nearly had to drag him inside because he was still outside signing autographs after half an hour when all the other players had gone in."

But if Freestone was trying to do a good turn, there was nothing charitable about United once the game started.

The story goes that Fergie was so determined to avoid his players becoming complacent about lower league opposition that he wound them up in a way that compared only with his address before the previous year's Champions League final.

And Freestone admits the scoreline could have been even more emphatic. "I enjoyed it – I wanted to score because I was at a new club and because it was United, and I'd never been a fan," he said.

"But once I'd scored to make it 2-1, it was as if they decided to tear us apart. It could have easily been 10 or more. It was embarrassing – they were that good it was ridiculous and for us to keep it down to eight was like a win for us.

"It got to a stage where it seemed like every time they attacked, they scored.

"At 2-1 we thought we had half a chance. We worked hard and we were playing well, but as a striker I was having fewer and fewer touches and the ball was at the other end more and more.

"I was chasing anything, hoping to get something but they just seemed to keep scoring!

"So it was tough – they had some quality players and it was a long 90 minutes. But it was great while it lasted and great to be a part of it.

"As a player you want to test yourself against the best so it was great to see