ALL IN THE GAME Channel 4, Thursday "We never thought we'd see it, " said Bill O'Herlihy during the intro to Roy Keane's testimonial on Wednesday night. He was referring to Keane's general distaste for meaningless matches but it was a line that struck a chord as the old warrior returned to Old Trafford to applaud the fans and raise a few bob for charity.

Sadly, RTE did not provide us with the possible entertainment value of Eamon Dunphy and Liam Brady arguing Keane's merits or otherwise in the studio. With Dunphy a special guest at Old Trafford for the night, we got Ray Houghton. Did Roy single-handedly get us to the World Cup in 2002 Ray? "He was certainly one of the main players." Thanks Ray.

What they lacked in pundits though, they made up for with highlights from Keane's career. His United triumphs and misdemeanours were accompanied by a Johnny Cash rendition of U2's 'One'.

"Did I disappoint you, or leave a bad taste in your mouth. . ."

Fine work.

Unfortunately there was a meaningless game to watch, with Keane lining out for Celtic in the first half. The half-time whistle was the most entertaining aspect. During the break we saw Darragh Moloney interviewing a kid on his way into the game. We say interviewing, it was more being shouted at by a 10-yearold. "Keano's as hard as nails, " said the lad. "They're going on about his hips but shure he's an Irish man and he'll get up and keep going." Moloney then asked him if there was one special Roy Keane memory he had. Ah Darragh, he's a kid, he's barel. . . "Ah that's a hard one now, there's so many great memories, " mused the pre-teen. Politics beckons.

The second half was marginally more entertaining than the first as Keane pulled on a red shirt. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only goal before Keane got bundled over in the box. There's been penalties given for less in the real world, but Rob Halsey waved play on. Very harsh.

As Johnny Giles pointed out, "He's not exactly known as a diver is he?"

And so it petered out.

Keane took a microphone and addressed the fans, saying little more than "Thanks for coming, all the best". Then he did a lap of the pitch, the crowd rose to acclaim him and suddenly what had been a harmless kick-around became a genuinely emotional and enthralling event. "It's a very sad occasion, " said Giles.

If it was a last goodbye, it was a fitting one.

The following night on Channel Four, we met Frankie. Frankie was a football manager. Frankie became apoplectic with rage every five minutes. Frankie used phrases like "First touch of a rapist".

Frankie beat up his son. Frankie made liberal use of his favourite swear word; to use a polite euphemism, he told pretty much everyone to see him next Tuesday. Frankie called Arsene Wenger "a pointynosed French c**t". Frankie was the main character in All in the Game. Frankie was one of the more likable ones.

Ray Winstone played Frankie, the wideboy manager of a newly-promoted Premiership side. He had a son who was an agent, a chairman who liked him, a Walcott-type wunderkind who worshiped him and a director who hated him. Soon it became clear that he and his son were getting well out of transfer deals (whoever would have suspected? ) and everything started to unravel.

Everybody got corrupted by money, eventually making all the characters utterly irredeemable and nasty. It was relentlessly grim, with only the chairman (the chairman! ? ) left as the moral centre of the piece. As his side struggled, he spotted his son amid a throng of people chucking abuse and meat pies outside his office (this was inside the stadium, somebody should have really looked at security once this shower got promoted) while he carried on an irrelevant affair with his secretary. Her son ended up in a juvenile institution after being chucked "on the scrapheap" by the club. He might have got a second trial when he got out, what with mum playing at home with the boss, but the young lad goes and sticks a garden fork through his foot.

Meanwhile, Frankie got desperate as results went against him. He forced a doctor to falsify medical reports to ensure that a vital player gets back from injury earlier than he should (by threatening him with false abuse claims from the youth team) and ensured that his wunderkind is sold for next to nothing to cover his financial irregularities (by threatening him with conviction for underage sex). Ooh, made the two hours fly by it did.

The whole thing was brash, loud, too long and depressing, which could be construed as a comment on the modern game. But the modern game does tend to be entertaining, at least occasionally. Thankfully this was a one-off, so we won't have to see Frankie next Thursday.