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Dwight Yorke has recalled the torrid experience of playing against Stuart Pearce when he first moved to England.
The former Manchester United striker, one of the best ever to score goals in the Premier League, ended up writing himself into the club’s history books by being part of the 1998/99 treble-winning side.
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But it was certainly a case of ‘no pain, no gain’ before that following his move from Trinidad and Tobago in 1990 at the age of 17 to play for Aston Villa where he spent eight years.
Starting out as a right winger, Yorke faced a challenge to adjust to the demands of English football in the old First Division before the formation of the Premier League in 1992 and named one of talkSPORT’s regular pundits as someone who gave him the toughest time whenever he played against Nottingham Forest.
Speaking to Hawksbee & Baker, Yorke said: “When I was younger and playing on the wing there were some (who gave me a hard time) – Stuart Pearce was horrible to play against.
“He just used to kick lumps out of me every time to stop me bombing forward and scoring.
READ MORE ON STUART PEARCE
“He used to try and intimidate me over the years in many respects but I was still a young man who was trying to get to grips with the Premier League.
“[Blackburn defender] Colin Hendry was another one, [Forest defender] Des Walker – those kinds of players were tough players to play against.
“There was a period in my career when I was about 22 or 23 when I thought enough was enough and that was when I started taking on the big boys, so to speak.”
This is something considering he also came up against Roy Keane in his early career, a man who was later his captain at United and was not a man to mess with, especially if you stood in the way of a win.
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Yorke earned a move to United in 1998 and in 152 appearances, scored 66 goals. He formed a lethal partnership with Andy Cole and won three Premier League titles, the FA Cup and Champions League.
When he arrived at Old Trafford, United had Cole, Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with £12.6million signing Yorke joining the deadly attack.
And his class was needed in 1999 in Turin when United found themselves 2-0 down to a Juventus team containing Zinedine Zidane, Antonio Conte and Filippo Inzaghi.
But the team turned it around, with Keane, Cole and Yorke inspiring a 3-2 win, which is often mentioned as one of the club’s greatest victories.
Yorke is also a member of the Premier League ‘100 club’ thanks to his 123 goals scored and after winning it all at Old Trafford he headed to Blackburn in 2002 the played for Birmingham, Sydney FC and ended his career at Sunderland in 2009.
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