The United States’ most famous victory, perhaps England’s most famous defeat, is being made into a film and, as Dave Hannigan reports, a rock star plays Stan Mortenson

Discovering Gavin Rossdale, lead singer of Bush, husband of No Doubt’s Gwen Ste­fani, will play Stan Mortensen in a forthcoming movie about America’s 1-0 victory over England at Belo Hor­izonte in the 1950 World Cup was initially wor­rying. So soon after Bend It Like Beckham grossed over $25 million (£16m) in 18 weeks at the US box office, this sounded perilously like the beginning of some horrendous Hollywood attempt to cash-in on the game’s perceived current trendiness.

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The ever-promising Chris Plummer has gone down and down and is now out of Queens Park Rangers, but Anthony Hobbs and his fellow Rs have a soft spot for the fellow

Centre-half Chris Plummer could justly claim to be the very-nearly man of QPR over the last ten years. His final appearance for Rangers – at Layer Road, Colchester at the end of last season – completed a series of just over 50 first-team appearances, spread over an eight-season period that started with Rangers in the Premiership and finished with us in Division Two.

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Once, twice and once more (as a coach) an Evertonian, Alan Harper had a host of nicknames and collected several medals for Mark Tallentire to count

Alan Harper joined his team-mates in picking up the 1984 FA Cup while clad in an uncomfortably tight tracksuit top. It was almost as if he was underlining his bit-part status – Everton’s utility player had spent the final against Watford waiting patiently for the call which never came.

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Csaba Abrahall  looks back on a bench-warmer in the days before three subs, a loyal servant who rarely got to serve – Ipswich Town’s Mr Reserve Team, Tommy Parkin

So successful was Ipswich’s youth policy in the 1970s that anyone learning his trade at Portman Road could reasonably expect to have to consider storage arrangements for international caps sooner or later. Eric Gates, George Burley and John Wark were among many who made the transition from Ipswich junior to full international. Tommy Parkin, a member of the club’s FA Youth Cup-winning team in 1973, was not, yet his rather prosaic contribution is remembered al­most as fondly as those of his illustrious peers.

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Once seen as a jinx, David May became something of a mascot at Manchester United as he all but vanished from sight except for trophy ceremonies, as Chris Taylor remembers

“Who the hell is that?” asked my dad. “David May,” I told him. May had just come on as a 90th-minute substitute for Ruud van Nistelrooy at Anfield. With the score 2-1, Sir Alex had decided enough was enough and it was time to shut up shop completely.

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