Docherty tangled up in wash

The former Scotland and Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty came clean yesterday about how, in an incident to delight any self-respecting Manchester City fan, he managed to trap himself in a car wash machine.

Judiciously avoiding any references to feeling like a drip, Docherty conceded he would be "more careful in future" after revealing he had driven his Mercedes into a car wash in Chesterfield, stepped out when it failed to function, and was then sucked into the mechanism and soundly drenched when it finally kicked into action.

An employee heard shouts and pressed the emergency stop button before discovering a wet, shaken Docherty with his foot wedged in the tracking device used to pull cars into the wash. Three fire engines and two ambulances arrived to free his right foot and remove him to Chesterfield Royal Hospital where he received five stitches to a foot wound.

"I never thought I'd get tackled by a car wash," said the 73-year-old, who was driving home to Manchester from an overnight speaking engagement in Wales when the incident occurred. "I didn't think it was working so I got out of my car to have a look. I'm just glad they switched it off."

Docherty, capped 25 times by Scotland during a 15-year playing career that took him from Celtic to Preston North End and then Arsenal before managing Scotland and United's 1977 FA Cup-winning side, has already made a sheepish return to the garage with his wife to collect the £20,000 car.

Chesterfield Fire Service yesterday confirmed receiving a call saying Docherty had been caught in a car wash. Firefighter Simon Wilson said: "He was stuck fast so we had to use hydraulic lifting gear to ease the mechanism up so he could get his foot out. Most people stay in their cars in car washes, but some prefer to stay outside. It obviously went wrong in his case."

But Gary Siddall, the unwitting 43-year-old Total garage assistant who came to Docherty's help, seemed the most astonished player in the drama. "It was all a little out of the ordinary," he said. "It's not every day you get someone like Tommy Docherty stuck in your car wash."