The Manchester United fan banner that went viral: ‘Play like you mean it!!’

Stuart Forrest was deeply frustrated. The Manchester United fan, 47, watches his team home and away and he has not enjoyed what he has seen this season.

After an awful few days when Manchester City and Newcastle United both won 3-0 at Old Trafford, Forrest decided to do something ahead of Saturday’s away game at Fulham.

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“I bought a bedsheet for £10 ($12.40) at 10pm on Friday from Tesco in Handforth,” he tells The Athletic. “I felt there have been performers in the team not showing the commitment and fight I’d expect from a United player. My frustration was high after the Newcastle defeat and I decided to make a banner for the first time in my life in the hope that the players would see it.”

With their boys — Sonny, 12 and Freddie, nine — in bed, Forrest discussed the idea with his wife Ann-Marie.

“I knew I was getting up at six to get the train to Fulham with our sons,” he says. “We all go to every home game and apply for every away. We got lucky for Fulham.

“I wanted to paint ‘Play like you give a f***’ on the bedsheet. But my wife said ‘You can’t do that, you’re taking the boys. It has to be more positive.’ We decided on a more polite, ‘Play like you mean it’. Then Ann-Marie got a bit carried away and thought that the whole away end would be singing to the tune of The Killers’ ‘Smile Like You Mean It’.”

Forrest set to work.

“I put newspapers down on the kitchen floor and laid the bedsheet over them. I wrote the letters in pencil to make sure they’d fit. I had some spare black paint and a brush from doing the garden shed and used that to paint the message. It was getting late.”

The sheet was left to dry for six hours before they started the journey by train from Stockport to Fulham for the lunchtime kick-off.

“I woke up and saw the paint had gone through the sheet and the newspapers. So I now had ‘Play like you mean it’ written across the kitchen floor. I started to clean it up before my wife saw it, but she came down just as I was on the ‘It’. She was OK about it.”

Forrest and his two sons headed south. They told nobody about their flag.

“I wasn’t sure how it would be received,” he explains. “There’s a lot of politics in United’s support, lots of different groups.”

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Yet Forrest was convinced it was the right thing to do, having seen a similar ploy work with a junior team.

“I’m a fitness coach for an under-13s team and the boys were playing badly recently and losing at half-time,” he explains. “Then the words ‘Play like you mean it’ were said and the boys came back and won the match. The United players are role models to these kids and I’d rather have a team of 11 triers who give 100 per cent over anything else.

“Wout Weghorst was not good enough to play for United but I’ll never fault him because he gave it his all. The same with Odion Ighalo. Scott McTominay is not the best technically, but he gives 100 per cent. Harry Maguire gives it his all. Jonny Evans too. I feel that he knows what it means to play for the badge.”

Forrest’s work was far from done, though. He checked Fulham’s bag policy and realised only A4-sized bags were allowed into Craven Cottage.

“When I went into the stadium, a steward asked me the contents of my bag,” he says.

“’A Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut (chocolate bar), a Nintendo Switch and a bedsheet.’ The steward looked at me like I was a weirdo, but nevertheless stuck a label on it.”

Forrest and his sons were in the eighth row among a 3,000-strong away following.

“As the team warmed up right in front of us, I got the flag out and my sons held it up,” he says. “You could see players looking at it, but none were so blatant as to point. The fans around me liked it.”

Former United defender Rio Ferdinand, working for television, walked past before the game. He fist-bumped Forrest and said: “I like the message.”

Manchester United fans with a “Play like you mean it” banner in the away end.

— Carl Anka (@Ankaman616) November 4, 2023

Forrest’s phone blew up as TV cameras honed in on the banner and it went viral on social media. United were so poor in the first half, however, that the flag was brought out again before the second half. Then, in the 91st minute, Bruno Fernandes scored the only goal of the game.

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“We went ballistic,” says Forrest. “I was holding onto Freddie’s legs. It was turning into a great day out. We got the banner back out for a third time.”

The Forrest family ended up on the same train north as the team, although they were not allowed into the first-class section where the players were sitting. There was still time for one more outing for the banner.

“We got off the train at Stockport and got the banner out again,” says Forrest. “The United players walked past. Bruno Fernandes high-fived me. Jonny Evans smiled. Erik ten Hag too. Marcus Rashford was in his intense-concentration phase.”

Forrest was inundated with messages.

“I had lads wanting to take it to Copenhagen for the game this week. My sons’ mates kept coming around for a picture with the banner. I also spent £25 on Sunday papers because the bedsheet was in most of them.

“I’m glad we did it and I’m glad United won. We’re fans who support the team through thick and thin — we just want the players to give it their all.”

 (Top photo: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)