Dressed as a doctor and stranded in the road surveying a collision between two cars caused by a team-mate wearing a policeman's uniform, Gerry Taggart knew this would be one Christmas party he was unlikely to forget.
Thankfully, for managers at least, there has been no such revelry this festive season. But for Taggart, some 25 years on, the memory remains of a sobering start to a drunken night.
'I was captain of Barnsley,' begins the 50-year-old. 'It was fancy dress and we went as emergency services. We were crossing the road to the first bar when our goalkeeper, Lee Butler, in his policeman's outfit, put his hand out to stop the traffic. We were all laughing until one car shunted into the back of another!'
Taggart stayed to sort it out, making sure all involved were OK and agreeing to cover the cost of any damage.
'The two lady drivers saw the funny side when I offered medical assistance, or maybe not,' he adds.
Taggart, it must be said, was also a fine player. He returns to former clubs Barnsley, Bolton, Leicester and Stoke and enjoys cult-hero worship at them all. There were also 51 caps and seven goals for Northern Ireland.
'I worked out early what I was good at,' he says. 'I became an aggressive centre half who got a goal — and the occasional red card — and fans liked that.'
Taggart is now working as a match commentator for high- flying Leicester, the club where he won the League Cup in 2000.
He takes us back to their build-up to that final, when Martin O'Neill's squad headed to La Manga in Spain. Enter Stan Collymore. And a fire extinguisher.
'It looked like f***ing Christmas by the time Stan had finished,' says Taggart. 'Martin was coming out a day late, so from the airport we were on the beer. We ended up in the hotel bar at midnight, dancing on chairs, getting the fella on piano to play our songs.
'It was all good fun until I spotted Stan wrestling with this fire extinguisher. "What the f*** is he doing?" Next thing, he's covered half the bar. We all scarpered off to bed. Turns out it was our first and last night. We were kicked out and came home in shame. Still, we beat Tranmere 2-1 in the final — turns out those preparations weren't that bad after all. That camaraderie, it was our biggest strength.'
In 2004, Leicester returned to La Manga. Taggart knows where this is heading and wipes his brow in mock relief.
'Micky Adams was manager and we didn't get on, so I'd signed for Stoke and a few days later Leicester went to Spain. I was in my kitchen when it came on the news that eight of the lads had been arrested.'
It was later found accusations brought by a group of girls were false, but not before three players spent a week behind bars. 'I remember I was down on my hands and knees in front of that TV, "Thank you God!" Because you can be sure, if I'm there, I would have been in jail with them!'
Taggart was raised amid the Troubles in Belfast and was later a trainee at Manchester City when he learned one of his friends from school had been shot dead. He admits he was still a boy adapting to a man's world.
'I ended up in digs in a pilot's house and he rented the other rooms to three air hostesses. They'd come in from work at 3am with all the alcoholic miniatures and start partying. I was a naive teenager in bed worried about getting up for training. But it was great when they were all in — every half hour they'd ask if I wanted tea or coffee!'
From City, he joined Barnsley. 'I can't believe I'm saying this now, but I'd got sick of the girls partying.'
Taggart, only 19, soon got a taste for it himself. After scoring on his debut while wearing a cast on his broken wrist, around 1,000 fans appeared at the next game sporting bandaged hands.
'I was in a hotel 50 yards from a nightclub and everyone in Barnsley was starting to recognise me. I went from boy to man very quickly.'
By 21 he was captain. A move to Bolton followed, before O'Neill took him to Leicester in 1998.
'I love Martin, but we had our moments,' he says.
'He said it was my job to head it and kick it — and if I did get time, then put it in the channel for Emile Heskey to chase. So we were playing Arsenal and I passed it short to Robbie Savage. I wanted the return to pick out Heskey.
'Only Sav has done this stupid f***ing pirouette and lost it to Patrick Vieira. Martin comes in at half-time, furious. "Gerry, you can give it to Neil Lennon. You can give it to Muzzy Izzet. But whatever you do, don't give it to f***ing Savage, he can't play football!"'
It was just over two years ago that Taggart choked back tears during a live television interview on BBC Breakfast.
A week earlier, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, Leicester's owner, had been among five people killed when their helicopter crashed after take-off at the King Power Stadium.
Taggart had been yards from the scene with his two sons minutes before the accident.
'I didn't really want to do that interview. I did it to get the message out about how good a man Vichai was. Honestly, any posthumous honour you want to bestow on him, you can't go high enough. The impact he had on, not just the football club, but hospitals, charities, the whole city…'
It is testament to Vichai's legacy that his passing did not signal decline. Leicester sit second in the table, which is better than during Taggart's five-game spell as caretaker in 2007. 'We won once. But with that team, I'm telling you, that's not bad. It was a basket case of a club.' Not now.
'The infrastructure, Brendan Rodgers, the players — everything is in place to challenge at the very top.'
It is probably best, then, that there will be no Christmas party this year.