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Chris Nicholl won two League Cups but paid a high price... I used to head 100 balls a day and I don't remember good times so well

Chris Nicholl is trying to recall a couple of football matches 30 years ago, but the memories don't come so easily these days.

They were the last time Southampton played in a League Cup semi-final and the 70-year-old was in charge when they met Liverpool, their opponents on Wednesday night.

This was no ordinary Liverpool side. It included player-manager Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Jan Molby, Mark Lawrenson, Alan Hansen and Bruce Grobbelaar. Yet when Sportsmail runs through those names with Nicholl on the phone a week previously, he cannot remember the goalless draw at home in the first leg nor the 3-0 defeat at Anfield, so we arrange to meet to watch the decisive second leg back.