Bonus Badmouth - Len Ashurst

Meet the Manager: Len Ashurst Answers your questions, Cardiff City Matchday programme 1991 (Mansfield Town, Lost 0-4)

Name: Leonard Nimroy Ashurst.

Football Honours: Mostly imaginary.

Managerial style: Scouse with nous!

Best moment in football as a player: April 21^st 1959. Newcastle vs Sunderland. 53rd minute. Managed to sneakily kick Jimmy Scoular in the bollocks and cheekily call him a “poof”! We laughed about it later.

Worst moment in football as a player: April 21^st 1959. Newcastle vs Sunderland.  54^th minute. Out of the game for nine months after being savagely kicked in the bollocks and told to “f**k off” during an unprovoked assault by Jimmy Scoular. He laughed about it later.

Best moment as a manager: Yet to come! Let’s be honest, even my promotion winning Newport team were crap.

Best personal trait: Realist.

Worst moment as a manager: Yet to come! No, seriously. Sometimes, I reckon I could relegate any club, Man Utd, Liverpool. I haven’t got a clue, really. I’m flying by the seat of my pants half the time. I lie awake at night thinking about it.

Worst personal trait: I’m too honest.

Nickname:  'Len'.

That's an interesting nickname, how did you get it: At Newport County. The players started using it. It's short for, "That twat, Len Ashurst". It’s stuck ever since.

If you could invite four people to dinner, who would they be? Fred and Rose West, Bruce Forsyth and Dracula.

Hobbies: Pets and gardening, which I like to combine by burying cats

Favourite song? 'Don't Fear the Reaper' which due to a printing error on my copy I mistakenly thought was called 'Don't Fear the Raper!" Great song but terrible advice.

What was the last book you read? Can't remember the title but I literally couldn't put it down. I think after suffering some sort of seizure.

Biggest achievement in football? As a player, I’m credited with perfecting the 'banana shot' in Subbutteo.

What would you do if you won the lottery? I would buy popularity. So hopefully, it's a rollover that week.

Dream Holiday destination: The players at Sunderland famously offered to pay for a 12 month world cruise, if I agreed to go.

Claim to fame: Once appeared on 'Ready Steady Cook'. I took a cooked chicken, frozen peas and oven chips on the show. Oh, and a tin of pineapple rings.

What's your favourite part of your role as Cardiff City Manager so far? None, sick of it, if I'm honest.

Available from Amazon Kindle

Bobbing Along Issue 1

Bobbing Along Issue 1 Commentary

Bobbing Along Issue 2

Bobbing Along Issue 2 Commentary

Bobbing Along. Issue 3. May 1989

Bobbing Along. Issue 4. August 1989