David White recalls Niall Quinn's Disco Pants night and Derby goalkeeping turn

As Niall Quinn marks his 60th birthday, former Manchester City teammate David White revisits the Disco Pants tour story, a broken window and Quinn's night in goal against Derby.

Niall Quinn's 60th birthday has prompted former Manchester City teammate David White to retell two of the best-known stories from the striker's years at the club. Writing to mark the occasion, White revisited the famous 'Disco Pants' episode from City's pre-season tour of Italy in August 1992, when Quinn danced through the night alongside Rick Holden, a player signed only the day before. Supporters who saw the performance came up with a tribute song that has been sung on the terraces for the past 30 years.

White was present for the early part of the evening, which gave the squad a chance to unwind after a demanding training camp. He recalled plenty of singing at a restaurant before the wider group split up, with several players, White among them, returning to the hotel. Quinn's dance display in front of startled teammates and fans took place after White had already gone to bed.

The fallout reached him the following morning. Holden, a Yorkshireman, went from door to door collecting money because an altercation between Quinn and Steve McMahon had left a window broken, and the players were being asked to pay for it. White initially balked at a figure running into the hundreds of thousands, believing it was in pounds, before realizing the sum was in Italian lira, which worked out to roughly £10 per player.

The other defining moment came in the penultimate game of a season, at home to Derby County at Maine Road. Quinn had put City ahead with a left-footed volley, but goalkeeper Tony Coton was sent off for bringing down Dean Saunders in the box. With no reserve goalkeeper available, Quinn exchanged his No.9 shirt for the No.1 and took over between the posts.

He immediately justified the switch by saving Saunders' resulting penalty. White, left to lead the line alone, added a second goal, and although Mick Hartford pulled one back for the Rams, City held on for a 2-1 victory in highly unusual circumstances that White nonetheless remembered as a good afternoon.

White said Quinn's heroics in goal came as no surprise to him. The Irishman had a Friday training ritual in which he bet teammates five pounds that he could stop two of five penalties, a wager few of them ever won, with White pointing to Quinn's frame and his Gaelic football background. Even during the Derby game, Quinn caught a high ball, bounced it a couple of times and delivered a precise long pass up the field.

Beyond the colorful anecdotes, White ranked Quinn among the teammates he most enjoyed playing with. Their nights out, he said, always finished with a singalong, usually featuring Johnny Cash and Kenny Rogers, and he remembered their time together warmly.

On the pitch, the pair's understanding ran through two distinct phases. In the first, White learned that crosses delivered into the right areas would be finished by Quinn, while in the second, playing as a second striker, White used his pace to run onto the ball Quinn won and find the space behind. White considered their combination highly effective and described Quinn as a great teammate.