You'll never stand alone

Stand-up guy Dave Gorman says standing by Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson is proving anything but a laugh!

The comedian, who remains a big Reds fan even though his friends have stopped him attending games in London because he seems to bring the team bad luck, is confident that Liverpool will pull clear away from the relegation zone but isn't quite so certain that Hodgson is the right man to lead the way in the long-term.

"It's a tough season," admitted Gorman, after quickly dismissing suggestions that he looks uncannily like Max as "beard-blindness".

"We've got rid of Hicks and Gillett and I'm very glad about that. That's about the only good thing going.

"At Liverpool we normally traditionally stand by managers and I'd love him (Hodgson) to dig us out of it but I can't think he was really the best man for the job.

"Isn't it a little bit depressing generally that these days in football what you end up hoping for is a billionaire to come and dig you out of trouble? But that is the way it is these days.

"We do need to spend money in January and the squad needs strengthening. "Before the win against Blackburn (relegation did cross my mind); the win against Blackburn was the first time we played like we wanted it, it was a proper deserved win. It was 2-1 but we scored all three goals!

"I never really thought we were going to (be relegated) but you are watching and thinking 'we don't deserve not to be in the relegation (places) at the beginning.

"It's interesting the way lots of clubs like Villa and City and Spurs have moved on enormously - there's no comfortable top four anymore, is there?"

Buffoon

Gorman himself felt uncomfortable recently - rather saddle-sore, in fact.

The 39-year-old comic cycled 1,600 miles around the country, stopping off at different venues to perform to packed crowds - footage of which is now available on his DVD, 'Dave Gorman: Stand Up. Live.'

"I'm an idiot, a buffoon; I get myself into trouble and then I get myself out of it by telling audiences and it all works out," he explained.

"I just wanted to do a big bike ride. I wasn't doing it as a tour originally; I just planned, as lots of people do who are approaching 40, to do Land's End to John o'Groats or whatever.

"Then my manager said 'You are going away for how long without work? But what's my 15 percent?' So I did some shows along the way as well."

Entertained

Never one to turn down a good opportunity, Gorman has also tried his hand at co-presenting darts - and it was every bit as good as he'd hoped it would be!

"I went to one of the tournaments and there was a shot of me in the crowd," he explained.

"The people at Bravo, who were making their first foray into having darts on the channel, knew that people might be watching it who don't normally and they thought 'let's try to do something a little bit different from the normal coverage and help to bring people in'.

"So I got this weird phone call saying 'do you want to go to Germany for a weekend' - it was the stag do I didn't know I wanted. It was a weekend in Germany drinking beer with darts players. It was so much fun.

"In football there's a distance between the players and the fans these days, which in darts there just isn't. They are completely men of the people and they understand that their job is to keep those people entertained and they spend time with them."