Lifelong Manchester United fan Kevin Slack will be living the dream on Saturday.

The 45-year-old will share a pitch with some of the Premier League club’s stars of yesteryear in a special game to mark Bishop’s Cleeve Football Club’s 120^th anniversary.

The game at Kayte Lane between Bishop’s Cleeve Legends and Manchester United Legends will kick off at 2pm, with the United side set to include the likes of Wes Brown, David May and Lee Martin.

“It will be fun,” said Slack, a prolific striker for Cleeve back in the day. “It’s perfect, it will be a great day for the club, they’ve come on in leaps and bounds.

“What Paul Collicutt has done for that club is unbelievable. When I first started playing for them they were playing their home games all over the place, they were being pushed from pillar to post.”

Collicutt is the club’s inspirational manager – he has just guided them to third in Division One South of the Southern League, their best ever finish – and he will be in charge of Bishop’s Cleeve Legends on their big day.

And it is a very big day because both Brown and May are Champions League winners as well as multiple Premier League winners, while Martin scored the only goal of the game to beat Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final replay in 1990.

“I don’t really remember that FA Cup final but I do remember Brown and May, they were good players,” said Slack, who is Cheltenham born and bred.

“I supported Manchester United because of my dad, it started when Bryan Robson was coming to the end of his career and we had the likes of McClair, Bruce and Pallister. I really liked Cantona, too.”

Cantona was a very special player, of course, and a couple of players who were at the club at the same time as him – Russell Beardsmore and Ben Thornley – are in the squad for the game at Bishop’s Cleeve at the weekend.

Other players heading to Kayte Lane include Luke Chadwick, Chris Eagles and Danny Simpson, who went on to win a Premier League title with Leicester in 2015/16.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” continued Slack, who said he is going to borrow his 14-year-old son Mason’s football boots.

“It will be great to see some of the old Cleeve lads, some of them I haven’t seen for quite a while.”

Former Arle School pupil Slack spent most of his career at Bishop’s Cleeve.

“I must have played my first game for them when I was 16 and I was still playing for them when I was 42 or 43,” he said.

“I did play for other clubs as well – they used to call me yo-yo! – but I must have spent nearly 20 years at Cleeve.”

His other clubs included Cinderford Town, Yate Town, Chippenham Town and Evesham United, when Collicutt was in charge, and as a goalscorer, the 5ft 11in forward was always in demand.

“I was always a striker, I was fortunate because I was quick,” he said. “I used to do a lot of running with Cheltenham Harriers when I was younger – 100 and 200 metres – I think my best time for the 100 was 11.2.”

And he certainly knew where the goal was.

“I could finish,” he continued. “I was left-footed – my other foot was for standing on! – and I wasn’t too bad in the air. Because I was quick I used to run the channels.”

He once scored five goals in an FA Cup first qualifying round tie at Highworth Town, a game Cleeve won 5-3, but Slack insisted he should have scored six that day.

“I was through on the goalkeeper, 1v1, but hit the post,” he said.

That five-goal show in 2004 earned him the player of the round award, an accolade that saw him invited to the 2005 FA Cup final.

He was given a VIP seat in Cardiff, rubbed shoulders with the likes of Sven-Goran Eriksson, Lou Macari and Kris Commons, and was introduced to the crowd at half-time.

Manchester United also made it to the final that year which made it just that bit more special, although they were beaten in a penalty shootout by Arsenal.

Twenty years on and Slack, who runs his own scaffolding business, is still playing football.

“I play veterans’ football for Shurdington and I had the odd kickabout with Whaddon United,” he said.

He still enjoys his football, of course, so will he celebrate if he scores against his beloved Manchester United?

“Wouldn’t I just,” he laughed. “It’s been a while since I scored, I’ve forgotten what it’s like.”

Manchester United Legends: Nick Culkin, Russell Beardsmore, Lee Martin, Chris Casper, Wes Brown, Danny Simpson, Scott Murray, Danny Webber, Luke Chadwick, Chris Eagles, David May, Ben Thornley.