Goofs for
The Damned United (2009) More at IMDbPro »

• Errors in geography: In the film you see a pier call Brighton Pier, yet in the 1970s this was called the Palace Pier or even Brighton Palace Pier. It was also a completely different looking pier to what was seen, it has been refurbished and changed many times since.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the final scene, a modern, solar-powered Pay & Display parking meter is clearly visible in the seaside car park.
  
  
• Factual errors: It is implied in the film that Brian Clough never managed Brighton & Hove Albion, but he did manage the club alongside Peter Taylor for most of the 1973-4 season. The team finished 19th this season.
  
  

• Factual errors: Brian Clough seems to resign on behalf of Peter Taylor in the film, but English law makes it impossible to resign on behalf of another person.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the montage of footage of actual matches showing Derby's rise to the Second Division championship in 1968-69, one of the games is against Everton. Everton haven't played in the Second Divison since 1953-54. The footage is from 1969-70 when both were in Division One. Everton won the league that season.
  
  
• Factual errors: Derby County's rise up the Second Division table in 1968-69 is cleverly shown by superimposing a league table that clocks up points over a montage of footage of their games. However, the table almost always clocks up two points at a time. Derby drew a number of games over the season so the table should have risen by only a single point on occasion.
  
  
• Factual errors: An action scene depicts the Leeds side conceding a goal to Luton Town and post match scenes that depict Luton players celebrating a victory with a caption saying Leeds 0 Luton 1. While the match is correctly portrayed as the game that precipitated the sacking of Brian Clough the actual result was a 1-1 draw.
  
  
• Factual errors: The 3rd round F.A Cup tie between Leeds and Derby on the 27th of January 1968 depicted in the movie was played in Leeds, not in Derby, making the entire 'Brian cleans up the Baseball Ground' sequence fictional.
  
  
• Factual errors: The 'snub' of Clough by Don Revie probably never happened as it has never been mentioned by Clough in any of his memoirs and Revie's son Duncan feels it would have been completely out of character for his father to do such a thing.
  
  
• Factual errors: The commentator introduces Leeds as the League champions before the 27.01.68 game, but Manchester United were the reigning champions at the time.
  
  
• Factual errors: The 27.01.68 game was won fairly by Leeds with goals by Jack Charlton and Peter Lorimer, not Clarke & a Lorimer penalty as the film claims.
  
  
• Factual errors: The impression is given that Roy McFarland was injured and substituted in the 27.01.68 game when he wasn't and played the whole match.
  
  
• Factual errors: The dive by Billy Bremner to gain the penalty in the 27.01.68 game never happened.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Allan Clarke is named as a scorer in the 27.01.68 game but he didn't become a Leeds player until 1969.
  
  
• Factual errors: The player described as Clarke in the 27.01.68 game wears 3 on his back while Clarke usually wore the number 8 when he eventually joined Leeds United
  
  
• Anachronisms: Sam Longson says that Dave MacKay has "broken more bones than Evel the Knievel." It's unlikely in 1968 Longson would have known about him as Evel Knievel only became popular in Britain in the mid 1970s.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Derby are celebrating winning the Second Division title, the crowd are chanting "Glory, Glory Leeds United".
  
  
• Factual errors: A game against Leeds is described as being four days before the 1973 European Cup semi final in Turin versus Juventus. Derby actually played Arsenal on that particular Saturday. The events shown in that game are completely false and notice that no score for that game is shown.
  
  
• Factual errors: The commentator says that Derby deposed Leeds as League Champions in 1972, but Arsenal were the title holders before Derby.
  
  
• Factual errors: The fictional tie against Leeds shows Derby being so badly fouled by the Leeds players they have to field reserves against Juventus. Derby actually fielded a near full strength side in their 3-1 defeat.
  
  
• Factual errors: After being beaten by the Italians, Clough blames the defeat on Leeds. In reality Clough felt that Juventus somehow influenced the referee to favour their side and afterwards berated not Leeds, but Juventus.
  
  
• Factual errors: Dave Mackay is named on the team sheet for the fictional game against Leeds prior to the Juventus game in 1973 and is the only Derby player not to support Clough's reinstatement as manager. In reality Mackay had left Derby County in 1971. Alan Hinton is also named as in the team for the Leeds game, but he was injured at the time.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Clough is insulting the Leeds players about their style of play they don't respond, but in truth they did defend themselves against his accusations.
  
  
• Factual errors: Clough is shown signing Duncan Mackenzie after the Charity shield game, but Duncan was signed before the season started and played in the game as a substitute.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Billy Bremner was punished after his sending off in the Charity Shield he was represented by Maurice Lindley, not Brian Clough. Kevin Keegan who was also at the hearing said that Bremner, who is shown as belligerently unrepentant in the film apologized to him and was close to tears after the sending off
  
  
• Factual errors: After his sacking, Clough and Revie appeared on a Yorkshire TV Calendar special 'Goodbye Mr Clough'. Revie's participation was not a surprise to Clough as the movie claims. The depiction of it in 'The Damned United' bears only a passing resemblance to reality with the writers inventing most of what was shown on screen. Most notably, the 27.01.68 'snub' was not mentioned by Clough.
  
  
• Factual errors: Brian Clough is shown smoking in the film. His family maintain that he never took up the habit.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Duncan McKenzie is depicted as an idiot in "The Damned United' when in reality he was - and still is - an articulate and witty man.
  
  

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