Whether all the changes that followed were for the better continues to be debated over post-match pints up and down the country, but there remains a firm consensus that the final report of Lord Justice Taylor, published in response to the Hillsborough disaster in January 1990, belatedly dragged the sport into the modern age.
At this point the pub company increased the rent and the beer prices, so that a pint ended up 65p more than in other local pubs.
Older fishermen, blowing off steam over a pint, picking up an accordion and playing, shaking our hands, laughing... they didn't know us from Adam but we were welcomed, we were friends.
"I can go out with the lads, have pints, get up, have a nice bacon sandwich.
Several pints lined up for you come Friday, after a satisfying week of banter, no probs.
As soon as they started, 30,000 pints went up in the air, but I knew what was coming and kept the mixing desk covered for the entirety of the show.
Rural Ireland is ideally suited to dithering about on two wheels, and I drifted through the afternoon, stopping at Portmagee for a pint before wheezing up and over Coonanaspig pass, from where I could see the whole Skellig Ring.
I was a blood donor beforehand – I'd given 57 pints up to that point.
Or pick up pint glass and glass anyone passing.
Henry Chevallier, chair of the UK's National Association of Cider Makers, said a pint could cost up to 10p more when the duty increases by 10% above inflation.
