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Top right, Bobby Mann meets a corner their earth-shattering triumph. loch, Duncan (Shearer)… and Steve.”
Steve?
“Steve Paterson,” he confirms. “The manager liked to see the players let their hair down. Most of the nights out he would be there.” Paterson signed Mann three times in total – for Inverness from Forfar Athletic, and then for Peterhead and, finally, for Formartine United in the Highland
League, where Mann finished up eight years ago. Striker Dennis Wyness was the last of the side to retire, hanging up his boots while at Huntly two seasons ago at the age of 41.
“He (Paterson) was obviously very laid back and always believed in what he saw in games,” says Mann. “He was never over-tactical. He had belief in the players he signed. A lot of the boys had been at other clubs before, like Rangers, Aberdeen and Celtic. They never really needed much coaching. He gave you a platform to go out and play, like we did that night”
“The next day was when it really hit home,” he adds. “Barnes was sacked on the Thursday but there were already rumours that had been his last game. You realised what the ramifications had been. The fact it had been at Celtic Park was the big thing.
Inverness and Mann repeated the feat in the same competition three years later, but in the Highlands this time and with Celtic en route to the Uefa Cup final. While a remarkable scoreline, it didn’t cost manager Martin O’neill his job.
Mann has no mementoes from the night Caley Thistle went ballistic. “I never swapped a shirt in my career,” he says.
But he has many memories of a famous occasion and is happy to share them with passengers in the taxi the 46-year-old now drives in Dundee.