Fresh fallout from The Damned United

The perils of blending fact with fiction have been exposed again after a second footballer won redress over his depiction in The Damned United.

According to Rick Broadbent in The Times, the former Tottenham Hotspur icon, Dave Mackay, has reached a settlement with the producers of the film based on David Peace's novel. It was suggested in the screen version that the Scotland international, now 75, broke ranks with protesting players to accept an offer to become manager when Brian Clough resigned as Derby County boss in 1973.

In fact, while Mackay did succeed Clough in the Derby manager's chair, he had left the Baseball Ground in 1971 to begin a managerial career elsewhere.

The former Leeds player, Johnny Giles, won an earlier libel action against the publishers of The Damned United over his portrayal as a Machiavellian plotter in the Elland Road dressing room.

Mackay's own story, The Real Mackay, was published in paperback in 2005.

The Real Mackay: The Dave Mackay Story (Mainstream Sport)

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