Ian Neville has a masters degree in modern history and the 61-year-old certainly has a good memory for names, dates and places.

The one-time Oxford University student and current director of football at Stonehouse Town can remember how, when and where he fell in love with the beautiful game and the names of the players who made his heart skip a beat.

“I first started watching football 50 years ago,” he said. “I’d go and watch Stonehouse play and it was the year they won the Western League Premier Division. The club used to play in front of crowds of more than 1,000 in those days and I could list the whole team from that season.”

Okay, Ian, don’t give us the whole team, just a couple of the standout players.

“Darrell Loveday used to play up front,” he continued. “He didn’t pass very often – only when he had to. He was a bit like Don Rogers and George Best.

“He used to play alongside Geoff Green who set up a lot of his goals.

“And we had a huge man in goal – Ian Bearpark. He was a tremendous goalkeeper and played at quite a high standard.”

With a dad named Gary Neville, you’d have been forgiven for thinking that the young Ian had been taken to football almost from the day he was born but that was not the case at all.

“My dad was a printer in Stonehouse,” explained Ian. “He had The Print Shop next door to the post office in the high street and he’d sell birthday cards at the front of the shop and have his printing business at the back.

“He used to print the Stonehouse Town matchday programmes and I became his errand boy on matchdays. I used to distribute the programmes and we’d sell 600 to 700. That’s how I became interested in football.

“I soon became the programme secretary and wrote the blurbs on matches and the teams.”

Ian wasn’t content just to watch, however, and in his teens went off to play for Randwick Youth – one of the lads he played with all those years ago, Morton Watkins, is still heavily involved with the club today.

Ian also played football at Marling School once he reached the sixth form and he continued his footballing education while at the seat of learning in Oxford.

In those days teams were set up to attack a lot more than they are today with 2-3-5 the formation favoured by many… and no, Ossie Ardiles, who famously played five attackers when he was in charge of Spurs in the 1990s, wasn’t the manager!

“I was a midfielder,” said Ian. “I used to play in the old right half position but I was more of a defensive player than an attacking one.”

After leaving Oxford with his degree tucked in his back pocket Ian worked for Eagle Star for 25 years. His work would take him all over the country but he would always come home at the weekend to play football.

“All my mates were in Gloucestershire so I played for Eagle Star,” recalls Ian, who these days works for BAE Systems in Gloucester. “We were quite a strong club and I remember towards the end of my time there we won promotion to the Northern Senior League.”

Not that Ian can claim too much credit for that, although he was, nevertheless, one of the mainstays of the club, taking on the role of player/manager of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th teams during his 25 years with them and playing over 300 games.

“I played just one game for the 1st team,” he laughed, “and I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was away to Sharpness in the Northern Senior League and we lost 4-0. I played right back and all four goals came down my side of the pitch.

“The half-time team talk for Sharpness was simply to chuck everything down my wing. There was no way I was ever a Northern Senior League player, I was too slow.”

Ian, despite that chastening experience, has great memories of his time with Eagle Star and is “looking forward immensely” to a club reunion that has been planned for mid-October.

Towards the end of his time at Eagle Star, he had become player/boss of the team’s 4ths and was happy in the role.

However, when Eagle Star’s 3rd team were relegated to the bottom division of the Cheltenham League the 4ths were obliged to find another league because Cheltenham League rules did not allow two teams from the same club to play in the same division.

So, the 4ths moved across to the Stroud League for three or four seasons before Eagle Star decided to disband their 4th team and concentrate on their three senior teams.

It didn’t look great for Ian and his merry band of men but then a chance meeting with Mike Smith, the current secretary of Stonehouse Town, took his footballing journey in a surprising and as it turned out, very welcome direction.

“Mike said they wanted players for Stonehouse 4ths,” explained Ian, “so I said I could transfer all my players from Eagle Star.”

That was in 2003/04 and Ian is still managing the club’s 4ths today and, despite being in his seventh decade, still runs around the pitch on occasions.

“I play when we’re short,” he said. “We play rolling subs in Stroud League Division Seven so I go on for 10 or 15 minutes and then come off again.

“I did manage to play a whole game against Tetbury in March and I was chuffed to bits. I played right back and I heard their left winger say, ‘You know what we said, get everything down this wing!’”

Ian had the last laugh that day, however, as Stonehouse won the game.

His role as the club’s director of football means that he fills in when other managers are unable to make a game for whatever reason.

“It’s a floating role,” he explained. “Mike Smith does all the secretary/treasurer stuff and I do the admin.

“I took charge of the first team for a game a couple of seasons ago and we won 2-0 at Cam Bulldogs. We appointed Alex Kibble as skipper and he went on to become a very good captain. He’s since moved to Shortwood United.”

It’s not quite so serious at 4th team level, of course, and Ian is certainly never one to turn down an invitation to have some fun.

“We had a promotion party when they revamped the Stroud League a few seasons ago,” he laughed. “They disbanded Division Eight so it meant we went up to Division Seven the following season so I’ve now got a promotion on my managerial CV!”

Promotion is something that the club’s first team so nearly achieved last season.

The County League club missed out on a place in the Hellenic League on the final weekend of the season when they lost to Frampton United, who as a result pipped them to second spot.

“We’ve since lost a few players who wanted to move on and play at a higher level,” Ian admitted, “but we’re still in a pretty good position. We’ve got a good manager in Alex Lumsden. He’s only 23 but he’s very good for the club.”

Ian, who has two daughters, Sophie and Louise – “They don’t like football,” laughed dad – is far too modest to say it himself of course, but he’s very good for the club too.

“The club are a huge part of my life,” he said. “I’ll do anything I can for the club just like Mike Smith. I’ve loved every minute since I’ve come back to Stonehouse.”

And the good thing is, his efforts have been recognised in the community.

“I got Senior Volunteer of the Year for the Stroud area for 2010 and although I was proud to win it, the ‘senior’ bit made me feel SO old,” he laughed.

He’s also proud to take his Stonehouse Town shirt with him when he goes on his travels.

“There’s a photo of ‘Mr STFC’ Mike Smith and I holding a Stonehouse shirt in Thailand as part of a club competition to picture Stonehouse shirts in unusual locations,” he chuckled.

Ian, who lives in Quedgeley – his mum Sheila Carter still lives in Stonehouse – is lucky that his partner of seven years Emma Mitchell likes football.

In fact, she likes it a lot because she is secretary/treasurer of Cotswold Rangers youth team and works hand in hand with Ian who is the club’s chairman.

“We’re only a small club,” said Ian. “We started with an under-7 team about five years ago and now we’ve got teams all the way up to under-12s.”

Ian is a specialist under-7 coach but there are many more strings to his coaching bow than that. He has coached football at Longney Primary School for the past 20 years and is also an ex-coach at Stroud High School.

It’s all voluntary of course but then you’d expect nothing less from a man who is football through and through.