[TV] Marvellous - BBC 9pm tonight.

scoobiewhite said:

One of the best films I’ve watched. Handled really well. Cutting in the real life figures during the film is a great idea.

Turns me into a puddle every time.

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Neville's Breakfast said:

Thank you. We watched after reading your OP and loved it. Particularly enjoyed the scene where Neil wound up the flash young player with the flash underpants, also when he gave the team talk in the style of Brian Clough and Macari thought he was being impersonated. Lou Macari did a wonderful thing when he gave Neil a job.
I’m only surprised I hadn’t come across the story before as it seems a unique one.

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OGH's Libido said:

Saw this again the other night, nice to see its still well recieved.

I went to Keele and first met him outside the student union. He immediately tried to recruit me to Neil Baldwin's AFC. I had no idea who he was or why he was there, and I didnt take up his offer.

I ended up joining through friends a year later, most of us joined at the same time.

We heard the fanciful stories of famous friends, which we immediately disregarded. But every once in a while, he would show us a letter or a photo to prove it. Gordon Banks? 'A very nice man'. Kevin Keegan? 'A very nice man'. The more the myths about his life were confirmed, the more the mystery grew!

Neil was brilliant to be around. We'd train once or twice a week and Neil would always hang around, clinging onto a shopping bag. He'd yell shouts of disbelief at a missed shot or would just single someone out indiscriminately. 'Oi! What did you do that for? Youre rubbish!'. We'd find it hilarious - no one wanted to be singled out. But once he got the first laugh, that was it, green light for an hour of a non stop barrage of criticism - he would keep yelling until we left to get changed and go to the pub.

I remember one game when my back four were hopelessly hungover. I made a double save during a 2 on 1, before the 3rd attempt went past me and in when i was sprawled on the ground. Id let him down. Neil was furious. Neil roared 'oi, Eddy, NO MORE! NO MORE!'. And he didnt stop for the rest of the game. At half time he wouldnt look me in the eye! 12 years on and it still gets yelled at me when I catch up with former team mates who played that day.

I always loved the bemused look of our opponents if they didnt know us or him when Neil got vocal. I dont think we ever bothered to explain beyond 'oh, thats Neil'. We once played away against a Cambridge University team. We went out drinking with them and Neil sat in the corner occasionally badgering one of us for a drink or some chips. By the time it was time for us to move to the next bar he had made friends with everyone in there.

He'd sit in the lesiure centre at Keele and make stencils of all the games. Im pretty sure he would give us a rating out of 10, like they do in newspaper match reports. I remember he let me flick through his old stencils, and he showed me a rejection letter from from the FA for the England job. It was a brilliant reply. Im sure he still applies every time the job comes up, using statistics hand picked from his stenciled record to push his case. I understood then how much it meant to him every time I let a goal in, or when we won!

Id usually wear a Brighton top at training, and Neil would usually say good things about us. So for that reason, if you havent seen it yet, maybe give it a watch!

I've tried to attach a couple of photos, one of my debut (an outfield performance so bad I ended up becoming the keeper!) and one after a training session - looking back I'm struck by how happy we all were. Marvellous!
View attachment 125677View attachment 125678

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