The date – 15th March 2006. The venue – the JJB Stadium. The event – Manchester United’s reserves taking on Wigan Athletic.

Everyone remembers Patrice Evra’s infamously difficult game against Manchester City after he had just arrived, and it is also remembered how Nemanja Vidic, who signed at the same time, struggled when he first came to Old Trafford.

Former team-mate Phil Marsh, who was playing in the reserve team at the time, recalled how Vidic had a similarly disastrous outing in the second string – a performance so erratic that the other United players were wondering who had just been brought to the club.

“We played Wigan,” Phil recalled exclusively on his show for our TalkingDevils YouTube channel. “We had a really good side in the reserves. We won the majority of the time. This one particular game Vidic was playing, no-one knew much about him. We got battered 4-0 and he didn’t have a great game. He had a torrid time and slipped for one of the goals… we were all scratching our head and thinking ‘who’s this guy?’”

What made it more remarkable – Evra was also in the team! So, 50% of the defence which would go on to break records had actually suffered one of the most embarrassing defeats United tasted for a few years at that level.

Of course, Vidic recovered, and by the end of the season was a regular in the first team.

“It happens,” Phil says. “He got his chance in the first team and the rest is history but I remember my first impression being ‘what’s going on here, who have we signed?’ To be fair, we did have a few of those over the years, like Kleberson and Djemba-Djemba… Vidic proved everybody wrong and everybody loved him. He went down as a hero.”

Phil named Vidic alongside Rio Ferdinand in his best ever Manchester United eleven. “Vidic was an absolute warrior,” he said. “He put his head in where it hurts and his partnership with Rio was second to none.”

You can watch the show here :