Stuart Arnold falls in love again with the beautiful game and scores a penalty hat-trick during a luxury five-star hotel stay in Manchester.

IT’S not often you get to slip into the sheepskin coat of legendary football commentator John Motson – metaphorically at least – and sleep a stone’s throw away from where the likes of Shirley Bassey, Mick Jagger and David Bowie belted out some of their biggest numbers. And this all in the course of one day.

But that was what I managed to do on a visit to Manchester, which included an afternoon spent at the National Football Museum and an overnight stay at the fivestar Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel.

The hotel is on the site of the Free Trade Hall, previously home to the Halle Orchestra and a well-known concert venue. The hall closed in 1996, but following a multi-million pound revamp, which retained its original facade and main staircase, it reopened as a 263-bed hotel eight years later.

The Radisson contains several nods to the historic hall, including suites named after some of the stars who played there such as Bassey, Jagger, Bowie and others, including Ella Fitzgerald and Rudolph Valentino.

Our room contained all the little touches you would expect from a five-star hotel.

Our room had a widescreen television, digital radio and iPod dock, and in the bathroom, a modern shower room. There was a view over the city from our window with the imposing Manchester Town Hall clock prominent over a mass of tall buildings.

With some free time in the afternoon, we visited the National Football Museum, which moved from Preston to Manchester last year.

Housed in Manchester’s landmark Urbis building, it claims to have the greatest collection of football memorabilia ever assembled.

It’s free to enter, although you pay extra to take part in some of the interactive “Football Plus+” exhibits.

You can easily lose yourself in the history and romance of the game while wandering around the museum.

Interestingly, Darlington’s Arthur Wharton – said to be the first black professional footballer – is an inductee into the museum’s hall of fame, which features a number of famous ex-pros along with others less well known who have made a significant contribution to the game.

It’s easy to be a cynic about football these days, but some of the collections here remind you that football isn’t just about money and the teams which dominate our television screens.

The grassroots game features prominently in an entertaining widescreen cinema film which charts a month in the life of English football and features clips from the length and breadth of the country.

The museum also recreates some of the traditional smells from football dressing rooms – half-time oranges, liniment and even sweaty socks.

There’s a reminder of how football reporters of yesteryear plied their trade, using carrier-pigeons to relay halftime and full-time scores back to their newsrooms.

One of the many interactive exhibits allows you to become a BBC television commentator over a classic football match, which plays out on the screen in front of you.

Unfortunately, my tepid effort failed to match up to that of John Motson or any of the BBC’s roster of commentators, but it did give my partner Helen a chuckle.

I also took part in a penalty shoot-out against a computerised goalkeeper and, remarkably, managed a hattrick.

Meanwhile, I was pleased to see my own team “Super Leeds” featured throughout the museum, much to the chagrin of Helen, whose club, Middlesbrough, received far fewer mentions.

Back at the hotel, we sat down to eat in the Manhattan- styled Opus One restaurant.

Its market menu, which includes dishes with herbs taken from the Radisson’s rooftop garden and celebrates great British produce, was commended last year for a Taste of England Award.

It is also tremendous value, with three courses costing £25 – not bad for a five-star hotel.

The friendly staff were happy to make conversation during our meal, although we did find there was a wait for our courses to arrive.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a relaxing glass of champagne in the hotel’s grand-looking Opus Reserve bar, said to be an occasional hangout of footballers and television celebrities. We didn’t see any celebs, but even if we had it’s unlikely they’d have been as famous as Bassey, Jagger and Bowie or the man himself, Motty.