Ex-Shrimps manager Jim Bentley joins football Q&A in Lancaster

The season of the Toll House Inn’s football talks is well under way and in early April the Lancaster Guardian’s football historian, Terry Ainsworth, was joined by Jim Bentley, former player at Manchester City, Telford and Morecambe and then manager of Morecambe and AFC Fylde until recently.

Jim, now fighting fit following a heart bypass operation, listened intently to the talk on Jimmy Murphy, one of the greatest coaches in British football since the World War Two, before joining in a question and answer session with the audience, many of whom are in the same age group as Terry, an octogenarian.

Jim chatted to everyone in the room, and before he left, Terry reassured him that he will present a talk on one of his heroes, William Ralph Dean – or “Dixie” to every Everton fan, which Jim has been since he was young.