Brian Clough was the great maverick English football manager of the 70's and 80's who managed the rare feat of winning the English First Division, as it was then called, twice with different teams. Moreover Clough achieved with two distinctly unfashionable teams, Derby County and Nottingham Forest. This film is concerned with his time at Forest, in particular his early years when, with his brilliant assistant manager alongside him, Peter Taylor, they transformed a side languishing in the lower regions of the second division into not only English champions, but also, even more amazingly, into twice winning the European Cup.

Unlike almost every other manager of the team, with the possible exceptions of Liverpool's Bill Shankly and Man City's Malcolm Allison, Clough was outspoken and openly courted the media. A frequent chat-show guest and TV personality of the time, he thought nothing of making provocative statements, usually on football but occasionally on social and political matters too.

It can't be stated enough just how remarkable his achievements with Forest were. Don't forget, he had arrived at Forest after a disastrous 44 day stint at champions Leeds United, later forensically documented in David Peace's book "The Damned United", later filmed, starring Michael Sheen. Even at Derby, he'd taken over a successful team which had lately won the championship under Dave Mackay, but here at Forest, after his failure at Leeds, he had almost nothing to work with, but with a series of canny signings allied to an eye for who to retain in the current squad and having reunited himself with Taylor, who'd not gone with him to Leeds, the rebuild started.

And what a rebuild it was. Within a few years his remade team of the untried and misfits was challenging the mighty Liverpool for domestic supremacy. He brought on players who had looked well past their sell-by date like defender Larry Lloyd, striker-turned-centre-back Kenny Burns and probably most importantly, mercurial winger John Robertson among others as well as nurturing young talent like strikers Tony Woodcock and Garry Birtles and midfielder Martin O'Neill. Playing a refreshing brand of attacking football but with a rock-solid defence behind them, especially after he bought England's great goalkeeper Peter Stilton, for the next few years they carried pretty much all before them.

In this candid but unusually put-together film, we get to see just what made Cloughy tick. For some reason though, the director has chosen to tell the story to a backdrop of early 70's soul records, such as the Jackson Sisters single which gives the film its name. Then, inexplicably, when the team take the obligatory bus-tour of the city with the trophy, it's with the Velvet Underground track "Rock and Roll" playing behind it. Clough was well known to be an aficionado of Frank Sinatra so I'm guessing this eclectic mix represents the director's own taste. And why the concentration on just the 1977-1978 season when they returned to win the European Cup again the next season.

Still, it was good to see so many of his old players eulogising old Bigmouth, not forgetting Taylor's massive contribution, plus the numerous football clips which show just how good they were on the pitch. My own favourite clip was the mischievous story hard man Kenny Burns told of the time he got the boss's unique sign of approval for clattering an opposition striker but there were many other entertaining bon-mots although strangely no sign of the famous clip of Clough on the training-ground "("You're a bloody disgrace!) or the man's numerous encounters with BBC commentator and great admirer John Motson.

With so many managers today who talk impenetrable jargon and quote statistics ad infinitum, this warm, loving film (there's little or no reference to his either staying just too long in the job (the team was eventually relegated on his watch, several years later) or his own fight with alcoholism, this was an enjoyable portrait of a football great, the likes of which we'll probably not see again.

A marvellous documentary that was a long time coming for a certain British audience of football followers. Nottingham Forest, a football team languishing in England's second tier made achievements in football that have never been equalled, not even by Leicester City FC in recent times. What makes this documentary work is that it's a story about the unlikely winner, and a tale about personailities: a team of yet unproven talent led by a bombastic figure who was was ridiculed for his abrasive, forthright opinions, Brian Clough. It was he, and his Assistant Peter Taylor, who drive the narrative with force and panache. The film concentrates on the psychology of sport, the simple methods of man-management and organisation and the courage of the footballers to believe their dreams can come true. A wealth of amusing anecdotes from former players play as a humorous subversion of the modern day game and its perceived excesses and strict club management of its player's reputations. The answer to success has always been there all along: team spirit. Where many football documentaries appeal to their own supporters mostly, this film has a wider appeal. There is an interesting epilogue to the film about modern footballers in context of the game in the 1970s.

'I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES' tells the remarkable story of Nottingham Forest FC and their catapulting into footballing folklore in the mid-late 1970's,thanks to arguably the most flamboyant,controversial yet charismatic and talented manager in English football history,the late Brian Clough,who took them to the height of success not just in England but Europe as well.

The movie starts when Clough's career was seemingly at the crossroads;after winning the English League Championship with Forest's East Midlands rivals Derby County in 1972,Clough departed along with his assistant Peter Taylor after a series of feuds with the club's directors,and after a brief and unsuccessful spell at Brighton and Hove Albion,rather surprisingly became manager at Leeds United,a club he had often fiercely criticised publicly,along with its manager Don Revie,who ironically hailed from the same industrial town as Clough himself,Middlesbrough.Equally unsurprisingly,Clough's tenure was short-lived in the light of such mutual hostility,and the fractious TV interview alongside Revie is perhaps an appropriate way for the film to begin,progressing from the ridiculous to the sublime.

By the beginning of 1975,Clough was appointed manager of Nottingham Forest,a club with past traditions in the FA Cup (having won the trophy twice),but not the sort you would expect to win League Championships,as indeed Derby were until they triumphed three years earlier;Derby themselves would go on to win the league at the end of that same season with a different manager (Dave Mackay),whereas Forest ended in mid- table mediocrity in the then second division and expected to remain so or even worse,Brian Clough or not.

However,the following two seasons saw a gradual improvement,to the extent that Forest won promotion to the first division,albeit narrowly in third place.Not much was expected of them in the new season,being made up of apparent footballing journeymen,cheap signings and unheralded also-rans,with such names as John McGovern,John Robertson,Martin O'Neill,Larry Lloyd,Kenny Burns and Tony Woodcock.Yet thanks to Clough's extraordinary skills of man-management and attractive football,he moulded them and others (most notably goalkeeper Peter Shilton) into a championship winning squad by the season's end,and even more astonishingly went on to win the European Cup two years in succession,acquiring the first million pound signing,Trevor Francis,along the way,who scored the winner in the 1979 final against Swedish club Malmo,in perhaps the least fashionable coda in the tournament's history.

The story seems woefully far-fetched to the uninitiated yet it did actually happen,and it is all likeably put together in a straightforward but efficient manner by director Jonny Owen,via pithy and amusing reminiscences by long retired players like Burns,Shilton,Lloyd and O'Neill interspersed with highlights of such heady days.The one who comes out of it best of all is Brian Clough himself,who could be both maddening and enchanting,belligerent yet charming,overtly confrontational but intensely articulate,and never remotely dull.

Inevitably,because director Owen keeps the story down to those remarkable years between 1977 and 1980,many aspects relating to this period and after are conveniently skipped over;the hooliganism that plagued English football at the time,his eventual acrimonious falling out with Taylor,his steady decline due to his alcohol problem and Forest's relegation in his final year in charge,plus allegations of financial misdeeds in his later years.But this was perhaps the right thing to do as the film intends to project a relentless feel-good factor,and it achieves it all very enjoyably with a warm glow by it's finish,helped on immeasurably by a Funk/Northern Soul soundtrack comprising of such tunes of the era which is very well judged and executed,adding to the purveying atmosphere of nostalgia.

In these days of billionaire benefactors and opulent signings of players from every corner of the globe,this is a timely reminder that the underdog can occasionally triumph against all the odds,thanks to team spirit,outstanding management and attractive football which is genuinely inspiring.And with the likes of an individual like Brian Clough no longer with us,it looked as though it would never happen again,yet barely six months after the film was released, Forest's East Midlands rivals Leicester City performed a footballing miracle of their own when they won the Premier League for the first time in their history with the affable,charming Italian Claudio Ranieri at the helm.But we can still celebrate and enjoy such victories in years past too with such a thoroughly endearing film as this.

Rating:8 out of 10.