Football was just so much better in the 1970s and 1980s, right?

The players were better, the kits weren’t so garish, the manager’s didn’t cry like babies and some of them even turned up to matches in person rather than watching from the hotel (José Mourinho, hang your head in shame).

So it’s no surprise that a new magazine, produced in the Midlands, is whipping up quite a stir on the shelves. Even if the Dragons couldn’t be coaxed out of their TV Den with some backing.

The ‘Backpass’ story took off in 2007 when Herefordshire-based journalist Mike Berry, 55, a former semi-pro player with Banbury United and VS Rugby had discussed an idea ‘with mates in the pub.’

“Our discussions always used to come back to the fact, rose tinted spectacles or not, that football was far better in the seventies, or eighties, or whenever you watched it,” he recalls.

“Personally I think the seventies were the golden age of football. I can probably name all the seventies FA Cup Finals, goalscorers and how the goals were scored but if you asked me about the nineties I’d have a job telling you who’d won the game. Watching the final then was an occasion for the entire population – or so it seemed.”

So together with partner Sandra Nicholson Backpass was born, a sort-of Shoot for today, a Match Weekly for grown-ups or a 4-4-2 for people with longer memories.

“The core readership is aged 35+, or even 40+,” says Berry who remembers draping an arm around his boyhood hero Alistair Brown’s shoulder as he trudged off the pitch after helping Leicester City to promotion with a 2-1 win at Portsmouth in May 1971.

Expert writers of the calibre of Phil Shaw, David McVay, David Instone, Martin Smith, Adrian Milledge and Alan Poole were drawn together and after a low key launch the magazine began to grow and grow.

“It started as subscription only,” says Berry, “and it’s snowballed from there really. Every issue has sold more than the issue before.”

Johnny Giles is a big fan, so too are John Motson, David Pleat and Nick Owen. Graham Taylor subscribes. Gary Megson and Tony Pulis have also ordered copies.

“(The BBC’s) Mike Ingham has written to say how much he liked it. The response from people in the business has been terrific,” says Berry.

“Essentially it was going to focus on the sixties, seventies and eighties but then we had letters asking for the fifties as well. We’ve also done a little bit from the early nineties: Jeremy Goss and his goal for Norwich at Bayern Munich (October 1993 UEFA Cup, second round) although there is a natural stop in 1992 when the Premiership started.”

So Sandra ventured into the Dragon’s Den and the signs were good when Theo Paphitis said he had seen Backpass.

“Theo said to Duncan Bannatyne ‘I’ve read it on my holidays Duncan, it’s more like a book than a magazine – it’s fantastic’. He was full of praise,” says Sandra.

“Deborah Meaden liked the look and the idea but had got no interest in football and Peter Jones just wanted to talk about the fashion magazine he’d already invested in.’’

So the Den gave them short shrift. It was their loss.

Lovers of the ‘golden era’ will no doubt revel in an upcoming TV series which will delve into the wonders of Star Soccer and the Big Match: Hugh Johns’ booming tones on the box on a Sunday afternoon.