Review: The Red Lion

Their fight to win the loyalty of Jordan takes on a far greater symbolism into a battle for the soul of football.

But if Marber's sympathies are with the romantics, it should be remembered that his play about love, Closer - recently revived at the Donmar - revealed the savage humanitarian in the writer. And the best lines and most persuasive arguments belong in this play to the venal Kidd. His dad took him, as a boy, to see Yates play and advised his son to emulate the player's qualities. "I said, 'Dad it's a lovely sentiment, but you're an alcoholic postman.'"

In Anthony Ward's design, the water-stained changing room where the action takes place, you can almost smell the stale sweat and Ralgex. If I have a gripe, it's that sometimes Marber's language feels a tad overwrought. It dares to put a lyricism into the mouths of working-class men who probably never read a poem in their lives. "That day… I was never so loved," says Yates of the moment he scored his goal. But "Nor loved this life so strong…" might be a poetic line too far.

But it's a terrifically witty script, too, especially when Ian Rickson's beautifully performed, if under-paced production allows Mays to take the reins. There is a shifty charm here that brings to mind George Cole's Flash Harry in the St Trinian's comedies.

Yet there is pain, too. As with the other males in the play, life beyond the football ground is a wreck for both Yates - failed marriage - and Jordan -parental abuse.

For them, football is more than a game. And certainly more than the cash cow the sport has become for FIFA's allegedly - and not so allegedly - corrupt officials. For Marber's men it is sanctuary.