I'll never forget March 27, 1988; the night before the Socceroos played Taiwan for the right to go to the Olympics in Seoul.
Having all but seen off New Zealand and Israel in home-and-away legs, we had to beat Taiwan in Christchurch to qualify.
It was decided by the Olympic committee that Israel was unsafe to play such qualifiers and, as such, Israel's home leg would be played in New Zealand.
To keep costs for Taiwan to a minimum its home leg would also be played in New Zealand.
So there we were, 90 minutes away from playing at the Olympics.
Taiwan had given us the scare of a lifetime in the first leg in Adelaide on a couple of weeks earlier.
We won 3-2, so they weren't to be taken lightly despite its lowly FIFA ranking.
That is why I didn't get more than 2 hours sleep the night before the game.
I had roomed with Mike Petersen for 10 years but that night I could have murdered him.
In a moment of quiet he just happened to play the 'just imagine game'.
"Just imagine if we get beaten tomorrow by this bunch of amateurs called Taiwan," he said.
"Imagine if we pounded their goal hitting the bar five times having the ball kicked off the line three times with the keeper making some world class saves."
"Imagine if they scored in the last minute of the game and it was you Wadey that scored the own goal."
Three hours later and we were still thinking the unbelievable.
There was so much at stake in these 90 minutes; after all we had the chance to become Olympians.
We painted so many negative pictures in our heads that we went in search of help.
The physiotherapist had given us sleeping tablets on long flights in the past so why not now?
I was desperate for sleep even if it was to shut him up.
It did, but it was such a 'false sleep', as I call it. You never wake up the way you do when it happens naturally.
The short story is we beat Taiwan 3-0 with Graham Arnold, the current Olyroos coach, getting the first, Frank Farina, the former Socceroos coach, getting the second and me the third.
Party? I’ll give you party, we went berserk.
On Saturday night in Gosford, against the highly-ranked Iraqis, there'll be 24 young Aussie men taking a massive step towards becoming Olympians.
I just hope they can get some sleep.
On another topic, well done to David Mitchell and the Perth Glory boys. Last week I mused whether results come before developing players; judging by the Glory's 4-1 win on the weekend it is results.
And finally, good luck to the Socceroos against Nigeria in their friendly in London.