Former AFC Bournemouth teammates Ian Cox and Mark Stein rolled back the years when they lined up on opposite sides in a walking football match at the weekend.
Cox and Stein played together for Mel Machin’s successful Cherries team in the late 1990s and both featured in the final of the Auto Windscreens Shield at Wembley in April 1998.
They had last locked horns when Cox returned to Dean Court to play for Burnley just a fortnight after leaving the Cherries for the Clarets in February 2000.
Stein, who netted 44 goals in 116 games for the club, was on target in Cox’s farewell appearance for the Cherries, a 1-1 draw against Scunthorpe United.
They were reunited after more than 24 years when Stein’s Tottenham Hotsteppers triumphed 3-2 over Cox’s Sunshine FC in the Middlesex FA Walking Football League in Barnet on Sunday.
Sunshine FC comprises members of the AFC Bournemouth Community Sports Trust walking football team which have sessions at Vitality Stadium on Tuesday nights.
Cox, who works on youth engagement for the CST, told afcb.co.uk: “It was great to see him and it brought back a flood of memories from our time together at AFC Bournemouth.
“Steiny is Steiny and I just couldn’t stop laughing! He didn’t stop moaning. He was moaning at the referee, his teammates, everybody so nothing had changed there.
“He played well. He scored a good goal and set up the winner for Tottenham Hotsteppers so nothing has changed in that department either!”
Stein, now 58, initially joined the Cherries on loan from Chelsea where he matched a Premier League record of scoring in seven consecutive games in 1993/94 which stood until it was broken by Ruud van Nistelrooy (10 games) in 2002 and bettered by Jamie Vardy (11) in 2015/16.
Click here for more information about the AFC Bournemouth Community Sports Trust walking football sessions.
