Zerouali goal really was a kind of magic
But Roy insists their success stems all the way back to the final days of Fitzpatrick’s tenure.
“In some respects the sad days were maybe the making of us as a team”, he said.
“Tony got sacked after a 5-1 defeat to Airdrie and there was some really harsh truths said in the aftermath of that game.
“Tony was fuming and the players were raging with each other.
“We were devastated because we felt we had let Tony down.
“But some of the things that were said showed just how much everybody cared for the club.
“We finished that season on a high and we had great momentum going into the new campaign under Tom Hendrie.
“We stuck together. Barry McLaughlin used to make sure we went out every single Friday after training for lunch.
“It didn’t matter if we had won, lost or drawn the week before, we went out for lunch as a team.
“The title-winning season was just something else and no-one had given us a real chance.
“The celebrations and that whole run are something that will live with me forever.”
So, 20 years later Ludo is still here.
He would eventually leave St Mirren in 2003 and stints at the likes of Livingston, Ayr United and Dundee followed.
He admits these days that leaving was perhaps a mistake,and for a man without regrets, he concedes leaving St Mirren is the closest thing to one.
But life goes on for Ludo outside of football.
Living in Kilbarchan, with his own health and wellbeing business, Ludo’s Primal Wellness, he jokes how things could have worked out so differently on that famous night in 1998.
“Imagine I didn’t answer the phone”, he laughed.
“Imagine I didn’t want to move to Scotland.
“At the end of the day it worked out to be the best thing I ever did.
“Twenty years later and I’m still here – you aren’t getting rid of me now.” All Ludovic Roy could do was watch as the ball rocketed beyond him and into the top corner.
A 30-yard free-kick from the man Aberdeen fans dubbed the Moroccan Magician left Roy helpless as Hicham Zerouali spared the Premiership side’s blushes against a Saints side seen as nothing more than First Division upstarts.
Steven McGarry’s opener had Saints on the cusp of a Scottish Cup upset but Zerouali had other ideas as he took matters into his own hands to earn a replay.
Beaten by a strike he could do nothing about , the last thing Roy needed was the hairdryer treatment from his manager when he trudged back to the dressing room.
But that is exactly what he got – before gaffer Tom Hendrie eventually recognised his own error of judgement.
Roy said: “Tom actually thought that I should have saved it and he went through me in the changing room after the game.
“We were all gutted because that would have been a marvellous result against a Premiership team. I felt that as much as everyone else.
“I have always been respectful to my managers but I was gutted that he pointed the finger at me for not saving that.
“I had tried my best to get a hand to it but it was some strike.
“There was no way that I was going to save that despite what he thought.
“Things are said in the heat of the moment and Tom came in on the Monday and apologised.
“He had watched the goal back and admitted that there was nothing I could do.”
Roy laughed:“To this day it was probably one of the best goals I conceded – I don’t like to think about it.
“But it probably wasn’t the best.
“Craig Dargo scored an amazing goal against us in the CIS Cup semi-final the next season at Hampden.
“Sometimes as a goalkeeper you have just got to put your hands up and admit there was nothing you could do.”
But despite the run-in, Roy admits he has nothing but good memories of his old manager... even if some found him boring.
He added:“Tom Hendrie was – well – different, shall we say.
“He was really good tactically and his preparation work was some of the best you will ever see.
“He was prepared for everything and you knew your opponent inside out come the Saturday.
“Honestly, he was brilliant. “But he was different. “He was a school teacher and he had his way of doing things, but man, did Tom like to talk.
“It used to be funny before training – you would look around the room and you would see some of the boys trying to stay awake when Tom was going through things.”