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Published 21:37 16 Mar 2018 GMT
Updated 14:15 17 Mar 2018 GMT
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But the then-Ireland international refused to tolerate it that day.
"I said, 'Shhh! I can hear you. Calm down, calm down'. At that stage I was really going to say, if you want to duke it out we can do it," McGrath told Manchester Evening News.
"I was so upset because I was being belittled. To be picked out because I made one mistake in the whole of the first half annoyed me and then I started standing up for myself, but I should not have done it in front of the kids.
"That made me feel ill about it afterwards."
McGrath had been offered a testimonial match by Ferguson at the age of 29 but the defender instead decided to take his talents to Aston Villa.
He spent seven years with Villa and when he came face-to-face with Fergie after the 1994 League Cup final, which Villa won 3-1, McGrath still regretted undermining his former gaffer.
"I wanted to apologise for the way I had spoken to him and had that thing on my mind," McGrath said. "I had never spoken to another manager that way.
"I had never said shhh to anyone, even when I did get barked at, so that was playing on my mind but after '94, I think it was the League Cup final, he just came up to me and gave me a big punch in the chest and said, 'Well done big man'. I just said, 'Thank you very much'."Football

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