GOING FROM BAD TO VERSE

LIFELONG United fan John Cooper Clarke, known as ‘The Bard of Salford’, narrates the film Too Good To Go Down.

The punk poet, 69, who saw the Busby Babes play as a child, believes their relegation in 1974 was a lesson for fans. “I’m old enough to have a dim memory of those years,” said Cooper Clarke (left).

“It was a difficult time for United and a time of football misery at Old Trafford, but that’s football. It’s about ups and downs. You can’t have it all in football, all the time. It’s about the laughter and the heartbreak, isn’t it?”

■ John’s new book The Luckiest Guy Alive is out now