Just a couple of days before the first leg of the 2007 UEFA Women's Cup final, a bus full of journalists turned up to watch Arsenal train.
Emma Byrne was stunned.
"I was thinking, 'What the hell are these lads doing here?' There was very little coverage of women's football at the time," the former Gunners goalkeeper explains in an exclusive interview with GOAL ahead of the launch of Heineken's Fresher Football campaign.
"It also felt a bit strange for me, in particular, because usually I'd be swearing at all my defenders, so I felt like I had to watch what I was saying in front of them!
"But I'll always remember that moment, seeing all those journalists streaming off the bus, because that was my first time realising that what we were doing in the Champions League was starting to generate real interest not only in our team, but also women's football in general."
Indeed, as far as Byrne is concerned, Arsenal's historic 2006-07 campaign was a pivotal moment in how the women's game was viewed, particularly in England.
The Gunners' men's team had gone unbeaten during their 2003-04 Premier League triumph and 'The Invincibles' rightly remain lauded as one of the finest sides in English football history.
What their female counterparts achieved 15 years ago was even more remarkable, though. Vic Akers’ squad swept all before them, winning a historic quadruple without losing a single game.
Arsenal’s women were the dominant force in English football at the time but they were rank outsiders in the Champions League (or the UEFA Women’s Cup as it was called back then).
Indeed, no side outside of Scandinavia or Germany had ever previously made the final.
Then, there was the fact that Arsenal faced Umea in the final, a superstar-studded side spearheaded by a 21-year-old Brazilian by the name of Marta.
“I knew all about her and I was thinking, 'Oh sh*t, she's probably going to destroy us!'” Byrne admits, laughing. “I still wanted to play but she was truly unbelievable.
“My dad still talks about Marta and he sometimes forgets my name! So, nobody expected us to even have a chance. It was two legs at the times, so it was double the trouble.”
Arsenal travelled to Sweden for the first leg and did so without the suspended Kelly Smith, who had been sent off against Brondby in the semi-finals.
The odds had already been firmly stacked against them. After all, they were facing a side that had already lifted the European Cup twice, and playing in their fourth final in sixth years.
However, Arsenal triumphed 1-0 thanks to a late goal from Alex Scott.
“Nobody thought we'd still be in the tie after the first leg, so for us to win over there was unreal,” Byrne says. “But we couldn't even be too happy about it, cos we were all just thinking, 'Oh no, now we've angered them!' And we did.
“They were so annoyed we'd beaten them. They threw everything at us in the return game.”
Umea laid siege to the Arsenal goal at Meadow Park but could find no way through. Byrne made one fantastic stop after another but, as she freely admits, she also benefited from one big stroke of luck late on.
“When the final whistle blew, I literally couldn’t believe it because, just before the end, one shot flew past me and I looked back thinking it was already in the back of the net,” she says, “but the ball came back off the post and hit me in the face, and then went out for a corner.
“I still don't know how that even happened. But everything was just going our way at that stage. It was very lucky but I think we deserved it in the end because we worked so hard.
“The season itself was really difficult. We’d been dominating domestically but, to be quite honest, we probably thought the Champions League was a bit of a stretch for us.
“And you have to remember that we weren’t full time back then. We were all working as well, so it was a really difficult season for us because it was so long. It was never-ending.
“Then, the further we got in the Champions League, the more difficult it was to focus on domestic games, because even just making the Champions League was just a massive, massive thing for us.
“It definitely took most of our attention and even after the Champions League, we still had the FA Cup final to play, and even that was difficult trying to regain our focus, because we were still celebrating winning that trophy!"
However, Arsenal managed to refocus and completed their unprecedented quadruple by beating Charlton 4-1 at the City Ground.
What made that triumph even more satisfying for Byrne and her colleagues was that the game was played before a crowd of just under 25,000 spectators – almost double the previous record for a Women’s FA Cup final.
"Personally, I think our Champions League win was the catalyst for the improvement in the relationship between women's football and the media, particularly in England,” the Irishwoman adds.
“After that, we all started to get more interview requests and calls from journalists. So, that felt like the start of the growth in popularity.
“It’s obviously taken a long time, though. Only now are we at this great place where women's football is getting the respect it's always deserved.”
And it’s high time that Arsenal’s quadruple winners do too.