Thirty-two years ago today, on March 23, 1991, with seconds left of a Division Two match at Middlesbrough and the scores locked at 1-1, David Byrne scored an incredible goal to kickstart what was arguably the most remarkable Great Escape in the club's history. Here, the former Golden Boy reflects on the game in an interview first published in matchday programme The Hornet...

When Watford visited Middlesbrough on March 1991, with 11 games left of the Division Two season, relegation to the third tier looked inevitable. The Hornets were eight points adrift of safety and had picked up only five wins from 35 games.

The campaign had begun with Colin Lee in charge, but he was replaced in November and Tottenham Hostpur legend Steve Perryman took over. This was not good news for winger David Byrne, who had been signed by Lee from Plymouth Argyle earlier that month.

“When I came in, in a lot of the games we played we really didn’t get what we deserved,” explained Byrne, looking back on that season. “We had a fairly strong side, but it was just one of them things.

“Obviously, it then cost Colin his job, which was a bit of a downer, for me especially. Steve Perryman came in and he just sort of made it clear he wanted to bring one or two of his players in. That’s football, there’s not a lot you can do about it.

“At the end of the day, I just thought I’ll keep plugging away, and it was [assistant manager] Peter Taylor that really kept my head above water. I wasn’t frightened to air my opinion, but Peter said to just keep my head down and keep going.”

Byrne was right to plug away because, despite being reduced to a bit-part player by Perryman, the Hammersmith-born wide man had a pivotal role to play in what would become one of the greatest escape’s in the club’s history. This all came about on a Saturday afternoon at Middlesbrough’s Ayresome Park.

“We got to the nitty gritty part of the season,” said Byrne. “When you get into one of those ruts, it’s not easy to get out, but we knew our luck had to turn at some stage, because we couldn’t keep playing as well as we were and keep dropping points.

“Against Middlesbrough I thought I was going to start but he decided to leave me on the bench. I remember watching on from the bench. We put a corner in and should have scored from it, and they went up the other end and I think it was Ian Baird who missed an absolute sitter.”

It was end-to-end stuff in the North East but, with 15 minutes to play, the game somehow remained goalless and Byrne remained sat on the bench.

“Peter Taylor told me to go and warm up, then I got the shout. Peter just told me to see if I could get us in their box. His exact words were ‘Go and win us the game’. We’d just gone 1-0 down but we won a free-kick and Gary Porter scored it to make it 1-1. Then I was thinking to myself, ‘We could go on and win this’, because you could just see that we’d taken the wind out of their sails. And then the rest is history.”

Indeed it is. What followed was one of the finest individual efforts from a Watford player in recent history. It trumped the excellent Porter free-kick that preceded it and every other strike that year, winning the 1990/91 Goal of the Season award. And, just like so many of the best goals in this club’s past, it took place in the final minute of the match.

“I remember there was a cross in, and David James came out and took it,” recalls Byrne. “I ran inside and then back outside, and he threw it under shoulder height and it nearly reached the halfway line! There was a bit of sidespin on it, because as it bounced it sort of shot over right into my path. I was just able to take a touch and take it on.

“I just wanted to get up the park. I was a good crosser of the ball, so I was just trying to get into those areas. But I remember Trevor Putney came out and showed me inside and I thought, if he’s going to show me inside, I’m going to take it. I just did a little stepover and cut inside on my left, and just thought to myself, ‘Listen, there isn’t long to go, have a pop’. It was with the leg that I only stand on.”

That ‘pop’ was a beautifully curled left-footed effort which flew into the top corner, leaving Boro goalkeeper Andy Dibble no chance.

“Every time I see Andy Dibble now, I give him the nod, and he knows what the nod is,” he joked.

Almost as impressive as the goal itself was Byrne’s acrobatic celebration.

“I remember running and doing a somersault to celebrate. I used to love doing a bit of gymnastics and trampolining and things like that. I did the somersault, and after the game Steve Perryman came on and instead of saying, ‘What a great goal’, he said, ‘I never knew you could do a somersault!’ I just turned around and said, ‘That’s what you’ve been leaving on the bench!’”

That match-winning kick turned out to be Byrne’s last for Watford, as he was not selected for the remaining matches of the season and subsequently left the club, but the strike kickstarted an incredible run of seven wins and two draws from 11 games and incredibly the team escaped relegation.

“It’s nice to go down in that history book,” admitted Byrne. “That goal really set us on the road to recovery, if you like. After that our points total was excellent. On the coach, we were having a beer and I said, ‘That’s the turning point’. I said to Keith Dublin, ‘Dubbers, that’s us, that’s the game that will make our season’. He said, ‘We’ll see, because we’ve played better than that and got beat’. I said, ‘Yeah, but maybe there’s the little bit of luck we’ve been looking for’.”