I originally posted this on a footy board I regularly post on. Not sure what interest any of you lot might have in this as most of you are not in the UK and probably won't be old enough to remember any of it even if you are. But there might be one or two of you out there.....


Just been to see this today. Really good film and thoroughly enjoyed it. I did go into it kinda expecting that they might make Revie and the Leeds players look like c***s. And to be honest I think they did (a little bit). They certainly portrayed the aggressive image of Leeds in that time very well, but they also showed that Clough was a flawed genius. It does make it look like the players refused to play for him at Leeds, but it also shows that he was partly to blame himself. Particularly it was his own undoing at Derby where his "resignation" plan backfired and the board accepted it.

The football bits are done quite well too. Though it has to be said that the players don't look anything like physically fit First Division players of the time. Some of the football sequences are given a retro makeover, to make them look slightly fuzzy like they would have done in 70s transmissions of the time. The charity shield shenanigans against Liverpool was a good sequence interspersed with real archive footage of Keegan and Bremner.

I did have a couple of criticisms though. In one scene just before Derby take on Leeds in a league match Clough is in the dressing room with all his players. The Derby players all sit there silently and look like they are f**king shitting themselves at the prospect of facing Leeds. Even Dave Mackay! That wasn't very realistic. Nor was the bit at the end where Clough gets on his knees to beg Peter Taylor to join up with him again. But these are just niggles in an overall excellent film.

On a personal note I recognised some of the places where the filming took place. Like the pitch on Beggar's Hill where the Derby players are training. Although you don't see it in the film that pitch is on a hill that overlooks Elland Road. Back in the day that pitch itself wasn't there, but many a cockney c**t was chased across that hill in days gone by. At the top of that hill is the Noster and Marley terraced streets where the scenes of Leeds players arriving on the coach were filmed.

Overall a cracking movie, though of course it won't do too well at the box office as it's a niche film. Only gonna really appeal to footy fans... and even then some footy fans still might not go as it's mainly about Derby and Leeds. For example, before the film started during the trailers there was one for a film called "Looking for Eric". I certainly won't be going to watch THAT s**t!

For those of you that like the retro stuff I managed to find some classic Clough clips on YouTube:

#1 This is the full Yorkshire TV Calendar Special interview between Clough and Revie that is depicted in the film. (need to click the top left of the video choices). Imagine two top football managers today doing anything like this! Pure theatre!
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