Debut: 2-0 win vs Coventry City, August 25th 1990
League Record: 356 games (+12 as sub), 22 goals
Sold to: Wolverhampton Wanderers (free transfer), summer of 2002
Talk to any time-served United fan about Dennis Irwin and chances are you'll eventually hear the words "reliable" or "consistent". However, that doesn't tell the full story of a man who can count himself as one of Sir Alex Ferguson's best bits of business.
Irwin began his pro career over the Pennines with Leeds United. Helped by the management of Eddie Gray, always well-regarded for his ability developing young players, he was soon in the first team and throughout 1984/85 season was a regular starter. However, that summer Billy Bremner became the new boss and didn't rate the young Irishman, letting him leave on a free. This may help explain why Bremner was sacked a couple of years later.
Snapped by a more sympathetic manager in Oldham Athletic's Joe Royle, Dennis was soon back on track and became a key part of a developing team. By 1990, alongside ex-Red Andy Richie, he was part of a very good team that reached the League Cup final and gave United all manner of problems in the FA Cup.
I actually got a decent look at him around this time, as I won two tickets to the 1990 League Cup final in which Oldham lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest. Irwin must have made a good impression, as I can clearly remember being happy with the news he'd be wearing a red shirt.
In his first season, he was mainly seen at right-back. On his début, he helped set up both our goals and his crossing and dead-ball abilities would become a big part of our player over the next decade. Eventually, he settled in at left-back, a position in which he can claim to be our best ever, certainly from those I've seen. Though not the quickest player, he had the intelligence to always position himself correctly and was as good at crossing the ball as most wingers. Never shy going forward, it was one of his runs that brought about the penalty that opened the scoring in the 1994 FA Cup final. The run to that final also saw him on the end of a great team move against Wimbledon, which he finished by scuffing the ball into the corner.
He was also a dead-shot at set-pieces, being our penalty taker for a spell in the late 1990s, a job at which he was typically reliable. I remember him missing one late on in the 1999 Treble season but didn't shirk when the next spot-kick came up, at Liverpool - which he put away.
By 2002, he was well into his 30s and we had Mikael Silvestre playing in the left back position and he was allowed to sign for Wolves. In his first season, alongside Paul Ince, they were promoted to the Premiership. Though they were relegated back down after one season, Dennis didn't disgrace himself in his final year before retirement - indeed, when he came back to Old Trafford, I remember a young Portuguese number seven was kept well in his place by the veteran.
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