Vinnie Jones and Roy Keane met on the pitch to settle who football's ultimate hardman is and one player emerged on top

Vinnie Jones and Roy Keane once met on the pitch to crown football's ultimate hardman - and there was an incredible result.

The toughest player in football history debate has long been discussed, with the likes of Duncan Ferguson, Graeme Souness and Patrick Vieira joining Keane and Jones.

Ferguson, for instance, received a three-month prison sentence in 1994 for headbutting a Raith Rovers player while playing for Rangers.

Jones never spent time in prison - he did, though, star in a 2001 film as a character who was sentenced to three years in Longmarsh - but was one of football's most feared man.

Vinnie Jones was feared on the pitch throughout his time at Wimbledon (Image: Getty)

A key part of Wimbledon's 'Crazy Gang' of the 1980s, few opponents left the pitch quite the same after coming up against the midfield destroyer.

Keane, meanwhile, admitted in his 2006 autobiography that he purposefully produced a knee-high challenge on Alf Inge Haaland, then of Manchester City, during a Manchester derby five years earlier - though did not mean to injure him.

In 1996, Keane and Jones faced off against each other during a Premier League fixture between Wimbledon and United.

In the seventh minute, Jones set the tone by attempting to deliver a crunching slide tackle on his midfield adversary, but Keane knocked the ball in the opposite direction and evaded the challenge.

The Irishman would then assist Eric Cantona to score United's opening goal in the first half.

Keane then connected with an elbow to the side of Jones' head in a subsequent move. While such an action would likely result in a red card in a modern day, he escaped by only conceding a free kick.

Jones would subsequently launch a high kick towards Keane's back in retribution, but the Irishman simply shrugged it off.

Denis Irwin made it 2-0 to United in the second half, before David Beckham added a third from the halfway line on 90 minutes to secure a big victory for United and Keane over Wimbledon and Jones.

Jones, who was 31 at the time, would leave Wimbledon in 1998 and played his final two years before retirement at Queens Park Rangers.

'The Crazy Gang' then began to disband and the London club were relegated from the English top flight in 2000. They ceased to exist under its former identity due to financial difficulties in 2002. The club's name was changed to Milton Keynes Dons, but Wimbledon supporters formed their own club, AFC Wimbledon, and they now play in League Two - the same division as MK Dons.