This limp, what-if British comedy-drama imagines Manchester United legend Sir Matt Busby in his seventies managing a team of tearaway pre-teens in the 1980s. Brian Cox plays Busby to very little effect, alongside a surprisingly top-notch ensemble cast, including a woeful Toby Stephens as a stuck-up grammar school teacher called Dr Farquar.
At the centre of it all is 11-year-old Georgie (Jack Smith), an angry kid grieving for his dead dad and at loggerheads with his well-meaning mum (Natascha McElhone) over whether to follow his footballing dream or knuckle down at school. It’s basic stuff with awkward flashbacks and nods to the 1958 Munich air crash that wiped out so many of the ‘Busby babes’, culminating inevitably with a football match. Sentimental and shallow, although just passable as a kids’ movie.