Welcome to The Football Mine

It Started With a Kick is a brand new podcast that launches on Tuesday 9th April, hosted by renowned football writer and author Richard Foster.

In each episode a well-known guest will delve into their memory bank to talk about the first football match they attended. 

The focus is less about the match itself and more on all the circumstances surrounding that pivotal experience. The sights and sounds, the fans and the kits, the stadium and their companions on that all-important day when a lifetime love affair with football began. 

In the first episode commentator Darren Fletcher reveals he went to his first match at the City Ground with his grandfather Horace in February 1980. Forest, the European champions, beat Manchester City 4-0, Trevor Francis scored a hat-trick but the abiding memory for Fletcher was that John Robertson missed a penalty.

The 7-year-old Fletcher thought it was always going to be like this with Forest thrashing all-comers and being at the top of the European tree, but sadly for him it did not quite turn out that way.

It Started With a Kick features an array of high profile fans and prominent figures from the world of football, including Guy Mowbray, Chris Sutton, Kevin Day and Kieran Maguire.

Each weekly episode is split into two parts, the first coming out on Tuesday, the second on Thursday. To get your twice-weekly fix of what Darren Fletcher called “a good natter”, subscribe/follow via your usual podcast platform.

---