Reviews

Oh great – the cynic might think – another book cashing in on the vogue of Clough and Taylor.  I must admit to being a little bit apprehensive. The author – Maurice Edwards – was quick in the prose to place Peter before Brian – but doesn’t in the title. Brian and Peter: A Right Pair.  So it was with a degree of scepticism and suspicion that I tackled the tome.

Edwards is the only person to have worked with Clough and Taylor at all their clubs – first meeting Taylor at Burton, and through him Clough.  Reservations were quickly assuaged with what is an fairly linear account effectively of his career as a player, referee and finally scout (whilst running a Post Office business) working closely with Taylor and Clough.

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I have just sat through the movie based on The Damned Utd by David Peace and I can honestly say the film made Brian look a wimp. Almost like a Yorkshireman I waited until someone lent me a copy before witnessing a deception of the scale of fairies, leprechauns, bigfoot and the moon landing.

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Nottingham – or the half of it that follows Forest at least – acts like it owns Brian Clough. His appropriately larger than life statue gazes towards Slab Square, while the monument to Robin Hood, that other legend synonymous with the city, sits tucked away at the foot of the castle walls, nowhere near as prominent.

Forest supporters watching The Damned United, the film adaptation – to be released on DVD at the end of this month– of David Peace’s book of the same name, might puzzle over a story centred on Clough that bears no reference to the club whatsoever. Just as we must often face the discovery that a new girlfriend or boyfriend brings with them a history, so it can be with our heroes. Clough arrived at the City Ground in January 1975 having enjoyed tremendous success already with Derby. That he would trump those achievements during his eighteen years in charge of Forest explains both the statue and the feeling of ownership, but it is with Clough’s disastrous and unsavoury forty-four day tenure at Leeds United in between that Peace concerns himself.

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The call came in at 5pm. My good friend Dave had managed to blag two tickets to the premier of The Damned United in Leicester Square. So with some unusual apprehension and help from another friend I decided to go. After the infamous walk on the red carpet, which is quite daunting for a complete nobody, and an introduction to some of the cast and crew from the delightful Gabby Logan we finally got the chance to see the film.

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