Former Aberdeen captain Alex McLeish can tell you nothing about the 120 minutes of the 1990 Scottish Cup final.
Ask him about the penalty shootout which followed extra time and the focus becomes as vivid today as it was 27 years ago.
McLeish captained the Dons to their seventh and last Scottish Cup triumph in what was one of his most memorable campaigns for the club he served with distinction.
He had already lifted the League Cup by helping his side beat Rangers 2-1 after extra time at Hampden in November 1989, led the Reds to runners-up spot in the Premier Division and had been named Scottish player of the year by the press.
Those accomplishments weighed heavily on McLeish’s mind as fear and pessimism took hold during the spot kicks against Celtic.
McLeish said: “I can’t tell you a thing about the game other than it was poor but I remember everything about my penalty from the walk from the halfway line to placing the ball and deciding what to do. The crowd seemed like cardboard cut-outs. Nobody was moving and it was almost a hallucinatory environment.
“They may not have been moving, but I could certainly hear them. It was a wall of noise and it was as if I was suffering tinnitus.
“As I was walking towards the penalty spot all I could think was how great a week I’d had after being named Scottish player of the year by the Scottish Football Writers Association. I convinced myself I was going to miss and end up with egg on my face. That’s how heavy the burden and negativity was on my shoulders.
“I took a few deep breaths and I remember thinking, I’m right-footed and I’m leaving nothing to chance here. If I sidefoot the ball and place it properly away from Packie Bonner he won’t save it. Packie went the right way, but thankfully I managed to connect properly and he didn’t get near it.
“I wished it had ended there, but it kept going for what felt like forever. But when Brian Irvine scored the winning penalty I had the biggest smile in Hampden as I knew I was about to celebrate one of the great honours of my Aberdeen career in going up to collect the cup.”
It may have been Irvine who scored the decisive winning penalty, but McLeish was the first to put his hand up when the shootout went to sudden-death.
It happened more by accident than design and it’s fair to say the Gothenburg Great was not exactly brimming with confidence when he volunteered.
He said: “I was bricking it. The five regulation penalty-takers had been and gone and the score was 4-4 with Brian Grant missing for us.
“Alex Smith and Jocky Scott were shouting: ‘Who’s next?’ and I could see some of the lads shuffling back behind me so I said I would take the next one.
“Jocky asked if I was confident I’d score and I said: ‘Not really, no.’
“He couldn’t believe my answer and wanted to know why I had volunteered if that was the case. I told him: ‘Listen, I’m the captain and I need to lead by example. I know what I have to do. If I concentrate and execute it properly Packie won’t save it.’ Turns out I was right.”
Irvine, the lifelong Dons supporter, made for a fitting finale, but McLeish insists his central defensive partner has company when it comes to providing the drama on the day.
He said: “Brian is the man who scored the winning penalty, but no one should ever forget the impact Theo Snelders had on the cup final. His save to keep it at 8-8 and tee up Brian to be the hero was unbelievable.
“He was a brilliant goalkeeper and on that day the save he made from Anton Rogan was amazing. It was a well-struck penalty to be fair, but Theo got a strong hand to it to keep it out.
“Charlie Nicholas deserves great credit, too. It was no secret he was going back to Celtic that summer and it was his penalty for us which took the shootout to sudden-death. He hit the ball in off the crossbar and to this day I tell him I still can’t work out whether he tried to miss or not.
“In all seriousness, he was a true professional and I didn’t doubt for a minute he would score.”