Queens Park Rangers vs Reading

HOOPS
Mike Donovan
DAVE
MACKAY
Football’s
Braveheart
The
Authorised
Biography
Forewords by Derek Mackay and Denis Law
out a number of a square
marked on the pitch and
we had to run to it. Last man
there gets 10 press-ups. My
slim chances of escaping the
penalty vanished when
Glenn Roeder ‘bodychecked’
me. My protests were
drowned in laughter.
“I was more than a little
warmed up by the time
Harris announced a practice
match. I lined up in defence,
comforted by the presence
of skipper Terry Fenwick
(who was to face Diego
Maradona in the 1986 World
Cup for England, incidentally)
and Steve Wicks, with Gary
Waddock, Simon Stainrod and
Mike Flanagan ahead. Against
us were jet-heeled Clive
Allen, Wayne Fereday, Roeder,
Warren Neill, Ian Dawes and
latest England international
John Gregory.
“Fenwick was long suffering,
telling me when to push up
or get goalside. Wicks was
unimpressed and sent me
into midfield. There I was,
totally bemused by the pace
and skill of it all. I could run as
fast as some but their speed
of thought and quickness off
the mark left me trailing by
half a yard. Allan Harris saw
me struggling and sent Bob
Hazell on as a substitute.
“It was the first and
probably last (it was!) time
I’ll train with a top division
club, but one remark from
Glenn Roeder afterwards
proved it was worth it.
“He told me: ‘You did quite
well. A lot of media men
criticise us, so do the fans,
without knowing what it’s
really like. Now you’ve got
a rough idea and you can
criticise from experience’.”
I’ll always be grateful for those
remarks from a lovely guy with
whom I kept in touch. I wish
I could have ghost-written
his autobiography as was
planned but shelved. Who
knows, there might have been
a mention of the day I trained
with the Super Hoops?!
Mike Donovan is an author
and award-winning journalist.
He produced Queens Park
Rangers Greatest Games
in 2013, with Stan Bowles
helping to promote it and
Les Ferdinand writing the
foreword. He has a feel for
the Bush and was taken to
Cooke’s Pie and Mash shop in
the area’s market by his mum
(who worked in the area) and
dad, attended concerts at the
fabulous Empire and hung out
socially in W12 growing up.
Mike has written a series
of football books – most
recently Football’s
Braveheart: the Authorised
Biography of Dave Mackay
which is available from Pitch
Publishing.
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