24th March 2017 you could never ever make up what happened.

'I don't even like football' - Ex-politician Neil Taylor defends himself over 'horror tackle' after case of mistaken identity

FORMER Trafford councillor Neil Taylor came under fire from furious football fans on social media, after they mistook him for his namesake and Wales footballer, whose challenge had left Ireland's Seamus Coleman with a broken leg.

Welsh left back Neil Taylor's challenge has been widely condemned as reckless and many fans looked to vent their anger on Twitter.

But they inadvertently directed their vitriol towards former Liberal Democrat councillor Neil Taylor, rather than the Wales and Aston Villa defender, following the goalless World Cup qualifier between the Republic of Ireland and Wales at the Aviva stadium in Dublin on Friday.

He was inundated with of messages condemning him for the tackle and saying he should be ashamed of himself - and over the weekend the story went viral and there were more than 100,000 messages sent.

The messages started coming through as Neil and wife Sandra were enjoying a 10th wedding anniversary meal at the Hilal restaurant in Timperley.

Neil and Sandra are not football fans and at first had no idea what the messages were referring to. But when he realised, Neil responded to the messages with humour.

He said: '"My name is Neil Taylor but I do not play or like football. Tonight I went out for a curry and beer.......I have no connection with a football player called Neil Taylor."

Neil, who used to represent the Timperley ward on Trafford Council, later added: "1: I do not play football 2: I don’t even like football 3; I was in a school footie team aged about six (we lost every game)."

He even tweeted a photo of himself as a child and said: "Here is Neil Taylor when he was little. No aspiration to play football. Would grow up to enjoy curry and beer, oh and chips. "

He told Messenger: "There were threats coming through about what people would like to do to me. but I thought 'let's have some fun with this'.

"It didn't spoil the meal. I could see the funny side of it.

"But it is one of the most bizarre stories that I have ever been involved with."

From the SAM but search Neil Taylor Twitter abuse the story went viral across the UK and global 

Here is a radio interview I did for BBC Radio Manchester on the story.

In March 2017 I was very lucky to be one of the 100 people chosen by BBC Radio Manchester to take part in Over To You, a week where local people would be given a chance to do tasks such as reporting, presenting, editing and more. 

We had a number of training sessions, and the whole experience was really amazing. Well done to the BBC for doing this, and thank you for being one of those that took part.

Here is a "reporting" bit done with Art with a Heart , a charity in Altrincham .

Our 2001 Ford Galaxy Zetec TD 1896cc (1.9) Diesel is up for sale.
This will be up on Ebay with a BIN £2.5k 
This has just 88.5k miles on the clock and the MOT is die in May 2017
Only had four keepers since new and is very, very low millage and we have owned it since 2012.
This has been very much a family car/people carrier and has/is in used on a daily basis, and it starts first time every time, and runs like a dream.
It’s a seven seater and the rear seats can all be removed. 
It has a after-market CD/MP3 player complete with remote control.

Since 2014 I have been involved with the Liberal Democrats on a local, and a national level, and over this time have met and become friends with a lot of people.
I stood for a first time in what was a fairly safe Conservative seat in 2016, this was in the Timperley Ward (Trafford) and I managed to win this seat.
I stood again in 2010 and held the seat.
in 2014 I stood once again, and this was on the same time as the European elections, the Lib Dems had been in coalition since 2010 and nationally were at an all-time low.

I lost the seat by just 56 votes.



During my time with Trafford Lib Dems, I have been a very active member, have been vice chair to the local party, and also served as chair for three years.
I have also been a campaign manager, and at the 2010 General Elections got the Lib Dems into second place for Altrincham and Sale West.
During my three years as local party chair, we also had a full slate of candidates in the local elections, this was a very challenging task!