YESTERDAY’S HERO

GB
1979
1hr 35mins
Dir: Neil Leifer
Starring: Ian McShane and Suzanne Somers

An alcoholic former footballer is determined to make a comeback

This needlessly forgotten footie melodrama was scripted by Jackie Collins! The entertaining film has been given short shrift by many, possibly only for its rather cliched story. The opening scene is a real surprise as it features a very good shot of a ‘Skinhead’ Class 31 diesel passing a football ground on a short rake of vans. This was Maidenhead United’s York Road, home to the Club since 1871, and the Football Association have since acknowledged that it is the ‘oldest senior football ground continuously used by the same club’.

What a way to open a film about football. A very rare shot of a Class 31, seen here passing the roofs of the houses in Bell Street.
Having panned back we see a match in progress. The 31 and its train of vans is trundling along the Great Western main line on its way to London. The football ground is Maidenhead United’s York Road. The football ground with a train in the background also appeared in the 1952 movie The Card (qv).