Kenny Blackburn will be back on centre stage in a few weeks’ time.

The 73-year-old will be in the dugout at the TigerTurf Stadium, home to Gloucester City, on Sunday 23^rd March when a team of Gloucester City legends take on a team of Premier League legends spearheaded by former Southampton superstar Matt Le Tissier.

Blackburn, who played 54 games for Gloucester back in the day, will manage Gloucester’s legends, a team which is set to include the likes of Tom Webb, Lee Smith and Alex Sykes.

“I’ve been manager of Gloucester’s legends since they started about four years ago,” said Blackburn.

“I played the last 15 or 20 minutes of the first two or three games but now I just manage, it’s great fun.

“We’ve got a good set of lads and they all want to play, they’re all Gloucester City through and through.”

Blackburn is also Gloucester City through and through, even though he hails from Wembley in north London.

“I’m a Spurs fan but I moved to Gloucester when I was 11 or 12,” said the former Central Technical School pupil who has spent much of his life in the city.

As well as football, he was a very decent rugby player – he played at Kingsholm, played for the county and the South West at age group level, and once scored 13 tries in an under-14 school game against Marling – but football was always been his number one sport.

“I played for Cheltenham Town Under-18s when I was 15," he said.

“I was an apprentice at Brighton for a couple of years and I was a pro there for a year, I played for them in the old Division Three.”

That was back in the late 60s when Freddie Goodwin, who went on to manage Birmingham City in the top flight, was in charge.

Goodwin wasn’t the only person at the south coast club back then who went on to make a name for himself because one of Blackburn’s team-mates was Howard Wilkinson, who steered Leeds to the old Division One title in the  early 90s.

“We did our coaching badges together, he was a good manager,” said Blackburn, who added that Chelsea great Alan Hudson was the best player he came up against.

After Brighton, Blackburn, a centre-forward, spent a year with Dover Athletic before returning to Gloucester in his early 20s.

He played for Gloucester and Cinderford Town – he had more than one spell at both – and he said: “I scored 16 goals for Gloucester, we were in the old Southern League. It was a good standard, quite a few of the clubs we played are now in the Football League.”

Blackburn is 5ft 10in – “I think I stopped growing when I was 12,” he laughed – but he knew how to find the back of the net.

“I had an eye for a goal, I think everyone would say that,” he said. “I once scored 33 goals in a season for Sharpness.”

He also had spells as player/manager of both Stonehouse Town and Matson, and both Doug Foxwell and John Turner, who both played for Gloucester, played for him at Matson.

Blackburn has always enjoyed the coaching side and he was coach of Gloucester Primary Schools for 10 years.

He was also coach of Gloucester City Under-18s, a role he did for 19 years until 2018.

“I was in charge of over 700 games,” he said with some pride. “I founded Gloucester City’s youth development, I had over 50 players go on to play for the first team.”

For the past five years he’s been head of football development at Tuffley Rovers, whose flagship team play in the Premier Division of the Hellenic League.

“I don’t want to coach or manage, I oversee things,” he said. “It keeps me active.”

And Blackburn will certainly be active when Le Tissier struts his stuff against his legends team.

“He’s one of those players who gets you out of your seat,” he said. “As soon as players like him get the ball you stand up, you know something is going to happen.

“He’s got good feet, he’s got a football brain and he can see a pass.

“He is special without a doubt. He didn’t get enough caps for England. Players like him, Glenn Hoddle, Stan Bowles, Rodney Marsh; in those days it was all about workrate.”

The Premier League Legends are also set to include Ian Harte, Dean Windass, Lee Trundle, Jimmy Carter, Alex Bruce and Paddy Kenny. Kick-off is 3pm.