Moment of Truth

Original version

BBC Radio 5 Live

Podcasts

Sport: Football

Three months in the life of a manager. This podcast goes where others don't.

A raw, tense and illuminating deep dive into the real lives of football managers. Intimate and unfiltered, this podcast reinvents fly-on-the-wall to take you where cameras can't.

What does it take to be a football manager? We all think we can do it: pick a team to win a game, sign a couple of players who looked good on FIFA....I mean, we've all played Championship Manager right? The reality is very few people can ever truly master it, can deal with the torment, the anguish, the pain of defeat or even the blessed relief of victory. And what about putting their families and friends in the firing line of fans, the media and everyone else who has an opinion on how you do your job?

For the last three months of the 2021/22 League One season, this podcast had unparalleled access to the life of a football manager as two teams battled to change their collective stories forever and win promotion to the Championship. From the dressing room to the training ground, the team bus to the technical area, Rotherham's Paul Warne and Oxford's Karl Robinson have worn microphones to record every single critical moment of the job during the tense and eventful run-in.

You'll get to eavesdrop on how the personal reality of football management is a constant gnaw of sleepless nights, skipping meals and missing out on family life. You'll hear how the wives and children have to tiptoe around their disillusioned husbands following losses and you'll listen in to how they rarely enjoy those hard-fought victories.

Narrated by Jimmy Nesbitt, Moment of Truth is an audio experience unlike any other that will give you an answer as to what it takes to manage a professional football club. This podcast is a love letter to our greatest game spread across 15 episodes. It's a rollercoaster ride through the footballing cauldron of League One where you get to sit on the bench of both teams as they battle to reach their Moment of Truth.

Moment of Truth: 14. Bring Us Home

14. Bring Us Home

BBC Radio 5 Live - Moment of Truth, 14. Bring Us Home

Rotherham travel to Gillingham knowing a win will put them back into the Championship.

It’s all systems go for the final game of the season as Rotherham travel to relegation-threatened Gillingham knowing a win will put them back into the Championship.

In the penultimate episode, it’s all systems go for the final game of the season as Rotherham travel to relegation-threatened Gillingham knowing a win will put them back into the Championship. However, should MK Dons beat promotion rivals Plymouth and Rotherham fail to win, then Paul Warne’s exhausted side will fall into the lottery that is the playoffs.

The manager goes to visit his chairman Tony Stewart to discuss tactics ahead of the game, before a scare at the training ground forces Warne into a tactical decision that could have a huge impact on the outcome at Priestfield.

Ninety minutes before kick-off, Warne and his coaches look back to the last day of the previous season when a win at Cardiff would have kept them in the Championship, only to concede a late equaliser that relegated them. Then it’s time for the biggest speech of his life as he sends his men out into the Kent sunshine in the hope that his side will come off promoted. This is their Moment of Truth.

The UK’s home of live news and live sport.

The UK’s home of live news and live sport. With live Premier League and FA Cup football, and Formula 1, Olympics and cricket coverage.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Moment of Truth

14. Bring Us Home

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 5 Live

About BBC Radio 5 Live