A FORMER footballer called Finn thought his colleagues were taking the Mickey when they asked him to sell a new drink.

Mickey Finn was always partial to a pint with his team-mates after a game and now he has a new tipple as a namesake.

Now Mickey, now sales and business development manager with John Stephenson's Wholesalers, Bradley Hall Road, Nelson, is promoting their latest drink -- called Mickey Finn's!

Mickey, 49, who played for the Clarets from 1969-76, shares his name with a new variety of flavoured schnapps, named after a Chicago gangster famous in the early 1900s.

And the co-incidence has proved a real boost for the former goalkeeper's employers as the cases have been shifting out of the depot.

Father-of-four Mickey, who lives in Altham, joined the drinks trade once his footballing career ended in 1983. He used to play alongside Alan Stephenson, Mick Docherty and Brian Flynn at Turf Moor and played for Accrington Stanley from 1978.

After he hung up his gloves Mickey worked for Blackburn-based Matthew Brown's brewery and then Scottish and Newcastle, staying there for 14 years. Mickey said: "The drinks trade is enjoyable and like football without the ball really!

"In the '70s we would go out and have a beer together.

"And if I can't sell a drink called Mickey Finn's then it's a bad thing!"

Roger Young, sales director at John Stephenson's, said: "Our Mickey is a true character and is well known around the area. Mickey Finn was a lovable Irish rogue and I joke Mickey Finn is a our lovable rogue".