The distance between the Theatre of Dreams that is Old Trafford and the Lancashire town of Bolton is little more than ten miles as the crow flies. But for former Manchester United favourite Mike Duxbury, it has been a marathon trip.
Duxbury, now working as a Physical Education teacher at Bolton School, still has fond memories of his time as a Red Devil, but these days he is just as happy helping the next generation of youngsters to reap the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle.
A Lancastrian born and bred, Duxbury's playing career ended in Hong Kong after a highly successful spell at United, which also saw him win ten England caps. After leaving Old Trafford, two seasons followed at Blackburn before Duxbury joined former United teammate Frank Stapleton at Bradford for two years. He then ended his playing career with Golden Electronics in Hong Kong.
Unlike today's top stars, leading players in the 1980s and early 90s could not automatically look forward to a comfortable retirement, punctuated by the odd round of golf, even if they had graced the game at the highest level. After leaving Golden Electronics in 1996, a part-time position became available at Bolton School, which Duxbury took up, and his coaching skills eventually led to a permanent position.
"It's funny how it all came about," he admits. "I was over in Hong Kong during Euro 96 and came back to England looking for work. I had started coaching at Blackburn on the academy side and Alan Irvine, who was head of the academy, was doing a bit of work at Bolton School on a part-time basis because (former England international) Paul Mariner had left the job to go to America.
"It was too much for Alan with his commitments at Blackburn so they asked me if I would be interested in doing some coaching. It came to the Easter holidays and I did a bit of cricket and it all snowballed from there and extended to the whole PE area."
Duxbury has taken to life after football with considerable aplomb and he is keen for footballers to plan for the day when their playing careers come to an end. "The hardest thing to get into the heads of players is that there is a short career span in football," Duxbury says: "Not everyone is going to make it but there are other opportunities available through the PFA where there is great support and help available."
Having played in front of capacity crowds at Old Trafford for so many years, Duxbury now passes on his expertise to a slightly less vocal audience at school, and not all of them want to follow in his footsteps.
"I spent 20 years as a whole in football and the biggest thing that hit me when I started teaching was that some children don't actually want to play football and do sport, but once you get used to that it is very rewarding," he adds. "A lot of the kids weren't actually born when I was playing, it's their parents who stood on the terraces. But the thing they do recognise me from is the old Championship Manager computer game."
Duxbury can look back on his playing career at Manchester United with considerable pride, although the club's failure to win the League Championship during his tenure still rankles. They looked bang on course to claim the old First Division title in 1986 after a run of ten straight wins at the start of that campaign.
"I was like everyone else at the club and desperately wanted to win the league," he recalls. "Maybe that's why I stayed with the club so long because I was really desperate to do it, but sadly it just didn't happen in that time.
"I was thinking about the 1986 season recently and you try to find a reason why we never succeeded in pulling it off. I remember playing Nottingham Forest away and that was best football I had ever been involved in, everything we did came off. I still don't know why we lost it."
There are good memories as well, though, and Duxbury recalls one particular European night with considerable relish. It was arguably the greatest night of European football Old Trafford has ever witnessed - a European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final between United and Spanish giants Barcelona on March 21, 1984.
Ron Atkinson's side had been beaten 2-0 in the first leg in front of 95,000 screaming Spaniards at the imposing Nou Camp stadium. They seemed to have an impossible task to overturn the deficit against a Diego Maradona-inspired Catalan outfit which also boasted the talents of West German superstar Bernd Schuster.
What happened on that super-charged Manchester night has gone down in United folklore, surpassed only by the club's three European triumphs and the exploits of the Busby Babes and Sir Alex Ferguson's treble winners.
Bryan Robson, who had been the subject of intense transfer speculation prior to the game, struck after 22 minutes before two goals in two second half minutes from Captain Marvel again and Republic of Ireland international Stapleton sent the 58,000 crowd into raptures.
Accrington-born defender Duxbury played his part that night too as he, plus fellow defenders Arthur Albiston, Kevin Moran and Graeme Hogg, kept Maradona quiet and ensured Gary Bailey's goal was rarely threatened. "I think Barcelona 3-0 stands out in everybody's minds, it wasn't a bad night," recalls Duxbury. "I was struggling with flu but was desperate to play. Maybe if it was just another game I might not have done.
"The thing that really stands out was the supporters and the crowd noise. I have never heard anything like it at all and when they say the roof nearly lifted off Old Trafford they weren't far wrong."
The Barcelona victory came in the wake of the 1983 FA Cup victory over Brighton and culminated in an agonising semi-final defeat to Juventus in the Cup Winners' Cup after a second-leg winner 20 seconds from time by Italy international Paulo Rossi in Turin.
Duxbury, who had joined the club straight from school in 1976, was also an FA Cup winner in 1985 but was denied another crack at Europe after English clubs were banned in the wake of the Heysel Stadium tragedy that same year.
Nowadays, his pupils can catch a glimpse of him in a United shirt in the Carling Masters six-a-side tournaments that are showcased on Sky Sports as yesterday's heroes return to competitive action. "A lot of the kids mention the Carling Masters that were repeated on Sky over Christmas," says Duxbury. "It's okay if it goes well, but if you struggle you do get a little stick."
And who knows, maybe one day one of Duxbury's own charges will end up wearing the famous red shirt and wowing the Old Trafford hordes.
* Article reproduced with kind permission of Players' Club - the official magazine of the PFA.
