Former Sunderland stars Michael Bridges and Thomas Sorensen have been recounting their days playing under the captaincy of Black Cats legend Kevin Ball.
The trio played together during Sunderland's promotion winning 1998/99 campaign before Bridges was sold to Leeds United that summer.
Since then, Sorensen went on to establish himself as arguably the club's greatest goalkeeper of the Premier League era. Meanwhile Ball is still highly revered on Wearside and continues to work for the club having previously held roles in the academy, as well as twice acting as the club's caretaker manager.
Injuries curtailed Bridges' promising career and he now resides in Australia after ending his career in the A-League.
Sorensen also ended his career down under and the pair are now prominent football pundits in Australia.
The pair were discussing their time at Sunderland and conversation turned towards Ball, as Bridges revealed why he was, at times, terrified, by the former Black Cats skipper.
"The one thing that always used to scare the hell out of me in that dressing room was Kevin Ball," Bridges told Optus Sport's GegenPod.
"When he put that armband on, got vix on his fingers and shoved them up his nose, you knew that was his game face.
"When he started braying that door. I don't know how that door stayed on its hinges. He was mental."
Sorensen went on to describe his funniest memory of playing alongside Ball, and it didn't disappoint.
"He was a great character," Sorensen added.
"My funniest memory of him was after we got promoted. We had a promotion party in Whitburn and we were semi-drunk after that celebration.
"We were driving back and it was after we had the red-and-white ball at the stadium. We were driving back in a taxi and I was looking out the taxi sort of half asleep and I saw this guy in a red-and-white costume sort of walking across the motorway.
"We stopped and realised it was the captain. He had just decided he had enough and started walking home. It was about two o'clock in the morning and he was doing a 10km walk!"
