THE Gaffer is George, Geordie manager of Coca Cola League Two wash-outs Northbridge Town, a northern team slipping down the leagues quicker than Leeds United.

This is his story, told his way in an industry that is changing fast in all but one direction, prejudice, and more of that later.

Gaffer! is a new play from Chris Chibnall presented in a collaboration between Southwark Playhouse and York Theatre Royal (the training ground for rehearsals), and it is the proverbial game of two halves, demanding a double Deka of a solo performance from Deka Walmsley.

The first half presents a snapshot of modern football. There is George in his tracksuit, king of his sponsored dug-out, pacing the touchline. Designer Laura McEwen gives you only a small segment of the pitch, but Chibnall and Walmsley complete the full (football) picture. Sometimes George talks directly to the audience, as if you were meeting him over a pint; other times he is relating his encounters with Albert, the curmudgeonly 87-year-old groundsman; Richard, the mid-forties new chairman with his 100-day improvement plan for the "Northbridge brand"; and Ronnie, his Howard Wilkinson-style scary assistant manager ("he's details, I'm schemes", says George).

In a brilliantly-observed scene, George introduces you to his team: old pros, cocky youngsters, the busted-flush Italian, the nutcase Colombian and the sexy, useless Swede. The driving force of that opening half (longer than 45 minutes by the way), is the FA Cup third round, a peach of a draw with Liverpool, Sky cameras, Football Focus interview and all. Chibnall's writing is Viz's Billy The Fish, fanzine disenchantment and broadsheet football analysis rolled into one, and Walmsley has the management ticks off to a T, while George's way with one-liner insults would have impressed Brian Clough.

Then his world falls apart, as teenage cup hero Darren Quinn gives him a drunken kiss, captured on camera. The genie of homophobia is let out of the bottle, and the macho game disowns him. The pox of agents, the need to save face and the curse of the tabloid bung stand against George's old-fashioned principles of integrity, honesty and heart. Is football changing for the better? No.

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Updated: 11:28 Friday, November 05, 2004