Update: I made a huge mistake for Manchester United and everybody still talks about it 20 years later News

Goalkeeper Roy Carroll spent four years at Man Utd – and he’s still asked about the mistake he made against Tottenham.

“The ball didn’t go over the line, I just got back in time,” said Roy Carroll with a smile on his face.

Two decades since Carroll dropped the ball and scrambled to scoop it from behind the line in Manchester United’s game against Tottenham, he is still asked about the incident.

It was dubbed ‘the goal that never was’ and it remains a famous mistake. “It was just one of those situations when the ball was coming back. I kicked the ball up the pitch and it went straight to Pedro Mendes. With the quality he had, he kicked it first time and it was way up in the air,” Carroll explained.

“I was thinking about throwing the ball out to Phil Neville at right-back, I took my eye off the ball and the next minute the ball hit my chest, went out of my hands and over my shoulder.”

Carroll spoke to the Manchester Evening News from his home in Northern Ireland. He is an Enniskillen boy done good, achieving his dream of becoming a professional footballer.

“I was over the moon when I signed my first professional contract with Hull City, who were in the old division two,” Carroll explained. “I sometimes still think to myself, was it a dream to play for Manchester United? I just look at my shirts and the few medals that I have. I’ll never forget it.”

Carroll made over 600 career appearances and played in seven different countries, earning a Premier League winners’ medal and winning the 2004 FA Cup during his United stint.

Enniskillen, the county town of Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, has a population of approximately 14,000. Carroll would go on to play in front of 74,000 supporters at Old Trafford.

“When I was playing for Wigan, they opened a new stadium and Man United came down to play us. I played the first 45 minutes because we had a league game coming up,” recalled Carroll. “I heard rumours they were interested in me, but I was supposed to go to Leicester with Peter Taylor.

“That move fell through and I was upset, but I got a phone call from my agent saying Sir Alex wanted to meet me. He said he’d watched me since they played us in the new stadium.”

Carroll continued: “Going into Carrington was amazing and of course I was very nervous, but everybody made me very welcome and David Beckham came up and shook my hand.

“I got my opportunity very quickly in the Premier League and I was honoured to play for Manchester United. Everyone was top notch, the training sessions were very high intensity and the biggest thing I noticed was players like Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville, they all stayed behind to do extras.

“That was the first time I’d ever seen it. When David Beckham would ask you to stand in for free-kicks, you wouldn’t say no, and it taught me a lot. When I was there, Ronaldo and Rooney came in, and they lifted the club. Sir Alex was bringing in the right players at the right time.

“There were a lot of unbelievable players at Man United. Roy Keane demanded you to give 100 per cent every time in training and in games, and that’s what football was like back then.”

Carroll didn’t have a full-time goalkeeper coach until his United transfer. Hull only had a specialist ‘keeper coach visit their training ground once a fortnight. “Most people don’t know that,” he said. But Carroll still made it to the top level and signed for England’s biggest club aged 23.

The Northern Irishman faced competition from Fabien Barthez at United, but he made 10 appearances in the Premier League in 2002/2003, which meant he earned a winners’ medal.

“To get the opportunity to come back home now with a Premier League medal and an FA Cup medal was a dream,” Carroll said. “I know I only came on for the last 10 minutes in the FA Cup, but Sir Alex gave me the opportunity because I had a decent enough game against Arsenal in the semi-finals in 2004.

“He put me on and I respect the man for that. I got the FA Cup medal and it was a great honour. People don’t understand from England, coming from County Fermanagh in 1995, it’s the back of nowhere. Scouts come across to Belfast, but nobody came down to watch in Enniskillen.”

Carroll made the infamous mistake in his last season at United. “I always mention it to my young goalkeepers in training. My reactions were good,” he said.

“I didn’t see Mendes again until I played for Rangers years later. He just turned up with a big smile on his face, and I said it was never a goal! For a goalkeeper, every day is a learning day, and when you make a mistake like that, it’s a mistake because you took your eye off the ball.

“There were 70,000 people there, so it was a bad place to make a mistake. That’s what I say when I coach: when you make mistakes in training, don’t worry. It’s the place to make them.”

You wouldn’t blame Carroll if he was bored talking about the error, but he still loves football and understands there is still interest in it. “It’s all over YouTube as well,” he said. He also laughed as he recalled that children still approach him and ask about it: “I say, where’s your dad, I just want to talk to him.”

The goal didn’t stand, despite crossing the line, and Ferguson asked Carroll what had happened when he returned to the dressing room. Thankfully, the mistake wasn’t consequential, but Carroll is still well-placed to explain what it’s like to make an error as a United goalkeeper.

Carroll knows what Andre Onana has been going through in the last two weeks after making mistakes in the first leg at Lyon and facing uncertainty in his role as first choice.

“I’m not talking about the Manchester United goalkeeper here, but I’m talking about all goalkeepers, it’s not easy,” said Carroll on dealing with mistakes. “I know people say you start all over again and get on with it, but it’s difficult, especially when you can hear people muttering in the background.

“As a goalkeeper, you have to be mentally tough and mistakes happen in football. It’s not easy for Manchester United goalkeepers. You can be the best goalkeeper in the world for Man United, but if you make a mistake, you’re going to be all over the front page because it’s such a massive club.

“I do a lot of talks about mental health because it’s very close to me, but the massive thing about football being a goalkeeper is you probably have more downs than ups in the game.”

Carroll was offered a new deal at United in the same month as the goal that never was. “In my last season, Sir Alex offered me a new four-year contract, but the opportunity to play first-team football wasn’t quite there, and I spoke to a few people around me,” he explained.

“I always wanted to play football and I’d been at Manchester United for four years, which was a dream, but I just wanted to play each week, so I decided I had to move to play more.

“It was hard. We had a meeting to discuss it in January, and Sir Alex ended up playing me for the rest of the season, which was fantastic, because I could have been sitting in the stands.

“We had another FA Cup final and ended up losing, which was the worst way to leave the club. We lost on penalties against Arsenal and should have won the game in the 90 minutes.”

After leaving United as a free agent in the summer of 2005, Carroll signed for West Ham before playing for the likes of Rangers, Derby, Odense BK, OFI, Olympiacos and Notts County.

He began to battle alcoholism and depression during his time at West Ham after sustaining an injury, but he felt he’d turned his life around by the time he played in Greece.

“They were great times, I used to call it mini Manchester United because they are a massive club in Greece and we always qualified for the Champions League or Europa League,” Carroll said.

Olympiacos fans regard Carroll as a cult hero because in his first appearance for the club, he came off the bench in the Europa League Round of 32 and saved a penalty with his first touch.

Carroll was beaten by each of Arsenal’s penalties in the 2005 FA Cup final defeat, and his save for Olympiacos was a sweet moment. “When I came on and saved that penalty in Moscow, it was minus 13, very cold, and it took me a long time to get off the bench to come on,” he said.

“That was massive for me. Even in the second leg, I pulled my hamstring and carried on for the last 25 minutes. The fans were fantastic and I kept a clean sheet. Those are the days I look at.”

Although Carroll recalls his time with Olympiacos with fondness, he admitted his time with United is what he’s still asked about most. And his mistake for the goal that never was.

“Of course the ball actually crossed the line,” he laughed.